Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

Relentlessly Reducing Patient Falls

It is estimated that 25 percent of falls by hospital patients are preventable. Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, a 380-bed hospital in Boise, Idaho, launched an initiative to reduce falls by half in one calendar year. Led by the hospital’s nursing quality and safety coordinator, the project team pursued several grants to support the hospital’s work and ensure nurses had the proper falls-prevention equipment, such as high-quality gait belts and chair and bed alarms for high-risk patients. The hospital focused on raising awareness of falls prevention, including posting “X days since last fall” signs in every unit. In addition, after every patient fall, a hospital team meets for debriefing, using a “Learn from Defects” model to identify problems and correct them. During 2013, the number of patient falls decreased by 13 percent in the medical surgical areas, and falls with injury decreased by 46 percent. Currently, Saint Alphonsus is identifying and separating predictable falls from unpredictable falls and unpreventable falls, and then will work to prevent the unpredictable, seemingly unpreventable falls. Jessica Sloan, nurse manager, recommends hospitals be “relentless” in working to reduce patient falls. “Share every event through transparency and create a culture of accountability, with the idea of taking away lessons that will prevent events in the future,” Sloan says.

For more information, contact Sloan at jessica.sloan@sarmc.org. Read the complete case study at the AHA/HRET HEN website at HRET-HEN.org (click on “Injuries from Falls and Immobility/Case Studies").

HPOE.org has additional case studies and information on falls prevention and other areas of patient safety from AHA resources and other groups.