Designing and Implementing a Zero Harm Falls Prevention Program: A Quality Improvement Study. Issue 3 (4th July 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Wilson, Mary-Agnes; Hacker Teper, Matthew; Sinno, Maya; Kohlberger, Kim; Nuseir, Deema; Chan, Angela; Palomera-Dinglasan, Kristen; Leon, Lauren; Donaldson, Dawn; Taher, Ahmed
• Is Part Of: Journal of nursing care quality. Volume 37:Issue 3(2022)
• Page Start: 199
• Page End: 205
• Publication Date: 2022-07-04
• Subjects: accidental falls -- falls prevention -- interdisciplinary communication -- patient safety -- quality improvement; Nursing -- Standards -- Periodicals; Nursing audit -- Periodicals; Health facilities -- Safety measures -- Periodicals; Nurse administrators -- Periodicals; 610.73
• DOI: 10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000617
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1057-3631

Abstract

Abstract : Background: Inpatient falls with harm have severe implications on patients and the health care system. Purpose: We implemented a zero harm approach to falls prevention, which aimed to reduce falls with injury by 25% within 1 year. Methods: We implemented a multifaceted and multidisciplinary quality improvement falls prevention strategy that included facilitating organization-wide education, adopting the Morse Fall Risk Assessment tool, displaying real-time unit-specific falls rates, and implementing a transparent root-cause analysis process after falls. Our outcome measure was falls with injury per 1000 patient-days. Results: We observed a decrease in the rate of patient falls with injury from 2.03 (baseline period) to 1.12 (1 year later) per 1000 patient-days. We also observed increases in awareness around falls prevention and patient safety incident reporting. Conclusions: Our zero harm approach reduced falls with injury while improving our patient safety culture.