Fall Risks and Prevention Strategies

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Fall Risks and Prevention Strategies

Fall Risks and Prevention Strategies Falls are a problem for most of the elderly population in the home, acute care setting, and long term care setting. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC;2013), there is one out of three people over the age of 65 who have fallen and suffered serious injuries and even death. This has become a problem for patients, families, and healthcare facilities that can be prevented through education and awareness of surroundings. Falls can be devastating to patients due to increased hospital stay and decreased mobility. The purpose of this paper is to discuss data associated with falls, and identify risks and prevention strategies.
Analysis of the data As the population continues to age, falls among the elderly are of great concern. It is important for healthcare facilities to implement dashboards to help improve performances of their facility and staff and to monitor patients who may be at risk for falls. The Sinai inpatient rehab unit used the National Data of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) to help measure nurse sensitive quality indicators such as falls. Falls are important to be monitored due to rising cost of care for patients who have fallen, and this will help decrease the chance of harm to patients. The dashboard monitored total of patient falls per 1000 patient days per quarter. There were 4 quarters monitored during this time frame with a goal of 3.14 falls per 1000 patient days. The reported falls ranged from 0 to 9.19. The decline of falls in the third quarter of 2009 in which the goal was reached with 0 falls; however, the other three quarters the goal was not met because there was 5.97 to 9.19 reported falls. The percentage of patients who were at risk and on fall prevention protocols ranged from 80 to 100.
Nursing Plan The elderly

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