Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Focusing on Patients to Reduce Falls

The Problem

After examining hospital data to pinpoint opportunities to improve, Gundersen Lutheran focused on patient falls. Patient falls made up the second-largest category of reported incidents for Gundersen Lutheran, after medication events. "It was clear everyone was trying hard, but there was no systemic or organization-wide approach to falls," says Kathy Klock, senior vice president of operations.

The Solution
Gundersen Lutheran launched a formal program in 2008 to lower the number of patient falls, with an initial focus on achieving no falls with harm, says Jeffrey Thompson, MD, Gundersen Lutheran's president and CEO. For the first year, it set a stretch goal of 30 percent reduction in the actual number of falls, including assists to the floor, which Gundersen Lutheran categorizes as falls.

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