Rhonda Klaus, MSN, RN 09/2016

¨  Staff will be able to describe visual cues in place to let them know a patient is at risk of falling.

¨  Staff will be able to discuss fall prevention strategies outlined in the HaysMed Fall Prevention/Management policy.

¨  Staff will be able to discuss how to assist patients identified to be at risk for falls.

¨  Staff will be able to describe appropriate actions if they encounter a fall.

“Preventable Harm” Prevention of Patient Falls

Goal #1 (weighted 60%): Patient falls will decrease by ≥ 25% from fiscal year 2016

baseline period by end of fiscal year 2017

“Preventable Harm” Improve Fall Risk Assessment of Clinic Patients

Goal #2 (weighted 40%): By end of fiscal year 2017, ≥ 75% of Medical Specialist and HaysMed Family Medicine Medicare patients ≥ 65 years of age with a minimum of one visit in either of

these two clinics will have at least 1 documented fall risk assessment.

Aside from the obvious (keeping patients safe), here are some stats to consider:

¨  In 2015, the Medicare costs for non-fatal falls was over $31 billion. To help put this in perspective, cancer had Medicare costs of $36 billion that same year. The average cost of a fatal fall was over $26,000 and the average cost of a non fatal fall was nearly $10,000.

¨  Fall injuries and deaths are expected to continue to rise as more than 10,000 Americans turn 65 each day. Within the next 15 years, the U. S. population of older Americans is anticipated to grow more than 50%, with the total number of older adults reaching 74 million by 2030. The costs of falls will surge unless preventative measures are taken (CDC, 2015).

Definition: ¨  A fall is "a sudden, unintentional descent, with or

without injury to the patient, that results in the patient coming to rest on the floor, on or against some other surface (e.g., a counter), on another person, or on an object (e.g., a trash can).

¨  An assisted fall is “when any staff member (whether a nursing service employee or not) was with the patient and attempted to minimize the impact of the fall by slowing the patient descent.”

NDNQI, 2016

ALL HaysMed Associates are responsible in helping to prevent patient falls.

Patients at risk for falling will be wearing yellow slippers and a yellow wristband.

Look for a yellow light

above the patient’s door.

Look for the yellow Fall

Risk sign outside of the patient’s room.

The MY RISK STOP sign inside patient rooms allow all staff to see “at a glance” what is necessary to assist the patient along with other interventions to help keep patients safe.

Staff will be able to engage and educate patients and their family members about fall prevention strategies through the use of the Patient Fall Contract (found in Access eForms). This educational contract is signed by the staff member and the patient (or family member if patient is unable to sign). The original becomes a permanent part of the patient’s record. A copy is placed in the patient’s room as a reminder of the education provided.

Become familiar with the Falls Prevention/Management policy at HaysMed. This policy describes in detail the necessary steps to be taken to prevent inpatient and outpatient falls, and what you should do if a fall occurs.

If you see a patient unattended who is wearing the yellow slippers and/or yellow wristband you should:

Stay by their side and call for assistance.

Assist the patient in sitting down if there is a chair or bed nearby.

It takes ALL OF US to keep patients safe from falling.

PLEASE keep FALL PREVENTION at the forefront of practice EVERY day.

TOGETHER we can DECREASE patient falls.

It’s a WIN -WIN for staff and patients!!!

THANK YOU!!!