Dive Brief:
- A North Carolina Hospital implemented a fall prevention program and reduced its patient fall rate by 22% to 2.5 per 1,000 patient days. That resulted in savings of more than $500,000, based on national figures calculating each fall costs a hospital between $8,000 and $13,000.
- New Hanover Regional Medical Center's patient fall rate three years ago was considered acceptable under national standards, but the hospital saw room for improvement. So the Wilmington, N.C. facility formed a patient safety services fall team that discovered 54% of falls were due to medicated or disoriented patients with physical impairments who tripped in unfamiliar surroundings or were unable to reach the bathroom.
- The hospital then took simple, inexpensive steps. Among them: nurses checking on patients hourly and giving meds in a way to make it likelier they’ll sleep through the night; and identifying high-risk patients and placing walkers in their rooms.
Dive Insight:
Falls are a serious problem within hospitals, resulting in costly injuries and 11,000 fatalities annually according to the Joint Commission. But there is no easy solution. In an effort to develop a more standardized approach, federal officials on June 4 announced a $30 million national study of a patient-centered approach to prevent fall-related injuries. Nurses will be trained to deliver individualized fall prevention plans to patients and monitor patient outcomes with PCPs.
