Introduction: Falls are common incidents among hospitalized patients and represent a key health problem within the rehabilitation setting. Falls within hospitals are serious adverse events that lead to injury, lengthy hospital stays and augmented costs among patients. The majority of patient falls is not actual accidents and is unavoidable consequences of old age, but is the outcome of a lethal conspiracy of numerous intrinsic and extrinsic risk factors. Therefore, it is important to develop to gather comprehensive information about the risk factors of falling among patients for the purpose of designing and implementing preventive strategies (Najafpour et al; 2019) HLT-308V – Educational Program on Risk Management – Part One & Two – Fall Prevention Essay. The purpose of the paper is to create an educational program that supports the implementation of patient risk management strategies at a rehabilitation center.
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Rationale: Fall prevention entails managing the underlying fall risk factors of a patient. Risk assessments are the foundation of a falls prevention program since it permits for more efficient utilization of resources along with focusing the attention of a patient’s team care when the patient is at an increased risk of falling. According to Gu et al (2016), a call prevention program is likely to be effectively implemented and maintained when it is compatible with an organization’s priorities and considers patients’ needs. Such a risk management strategy is lacking within the rehabilitation center’s current risk management plan.
Implementation of a fall risk management strategy will enable the organization to better meet local, state, and federal compliance standards. Several local, state and federal government agencies require healthcare organizations to have programs designed to prevent patient falls and resultant fall injuries. As Quigley and White (2013) indicate, the joint commission mandates certified healthcare organizations to undertake fall risk assessments for admitted patients to recognize the risk of patients for falls for them to implement prevention measures into the care plan. Additionally, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) identifies that falls can be reasonably averted utilizing evidence-based guidelines. and does not cover care costs as a result of an inpatient falls if the falls are avertable by the organization
Support: It is projected that 700, 000 to one million patients fall in United States hospitals every year. Fall-related injuries can result in an extended stay at the hospital by six days with the cost of care averaging 13, 316 dollars per incident. As a result of a large number of factors that contribute to patient falls, the majority of fall reduction and prevention programs have implemented several strategies like improving the process of fall risk assessment, improving communication among workers concerning fall risk status and improving patient and staff education (Weberg et al; 2017).
The patient fall data is a demonstration that it is the fall risk management strategy that falls under the organization’s legal responsibility to provide a safe health care facility and work environment. Weberg et al (2017) claim that nurses have the primary responsibility of assessing, intervening and documenting fall prevention as a portion of their process of care planning, while organizations have the responsibility of executing a fall prevention program that entails monitoring, collaboration, and communication.
Implementation: There are five steps to implement a fall prevention program in the rehabilitation center. The initial step will include developing a plan for implementation of the program by obtaining support from the administration, including funding for the program. The second step is to undertake an environmental safety check on every unit to ensure the safety of the environment. The third step is to gather data on the figure of patient falls, indicating the figure of falls with injuries. The next step will involve setting up a monitoring system and developing a system for recording fall scores of a patient in the patient’s chart. The final step is to train staff to identify patients that are prone to fall and a way of recognizing fall prevention strategies.
Challenges: Obstacles that the health care organization may face in executing a fall risk management program include, insufficient assessment of risk, failure of communication of compliance with safety practice, problematic physical environments and inadequate staff training. These obstacles can be overcome by having a training program that
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