In the United States, it is approximated that between 700,000 and 1,000,000 people fall in a hospital every year. Of these falls, 30-35% result in an injury, and about 11,000 falls are fatal. When a patient falls in a hospital, it may increase their hospital days up to 6 days. Also, this adds an additional cost of $14,056 per patient. Falls are caused by multifactorial reasons, so all hospitals have implemented multiple strategies. Of these strategies, some involve:
- refining the fall risk assessment process,
- using visual cues or systems to alert staff to patients at high risk for falls (signs on doors and in the patient’s room),
- improving communication among staff regarding the patient’s fall risk status,
- ensuring safe patient transfers while toileting (using more help and hiring proper staff),
- using equipment such as low beds, mats, wheelchairs, and walkers,
- and improving staff-patient education.
According to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), falls have been classified as a preventable event that should never occur. A fall is defined as a sudden, unintentional descent, with or without injury to the patient, which results in the patient coming to rest on the floor, on or against some other surface, or on another person or object. Of the contributing factors, the top 6 conditions identified by hospitals include:
- fall risk assessment issues,
- handoff communication issues (day shift to afternoon shift to night shift),
- toileting issues (showering and bathing included),
- call light issues (medical staff not paying attention to a patient’s needs),
- education and organizational culture issues,
- and medication issues (many medications have syncope or vertigo as a side effect and must be understood by all medical staff before and after administration).
Hospitals must implement a validated fall risk assessment tool and standardize assessment tools used between nursing staff and ancillary staff (physical therapy, occupational therapy, respiratory, and PCT). Hospital administration should ensure that the staff is adequately trained on the fall risk assessment tool and continually test the reliability between different caregivers on staff. Hospitals can save $1-2 million with fewer injuries related to falls.
Another very important variable in fall precautions is health care organizations’ leaders. Leadership support is imperative to success, especially to properly implement the hospital’s fall precaution guidelines. A good leader should know who, what, when, where, and how some guidelines of the fall prevention should be executed. Hence, a leader should be able to:
- Address and solve the right problems within their organizations pertaining to staff and patient care,
- Use proper time management and resources for issues that are critical to the quality of their organization, hence, pick and choose their battles and be adaptable to the needs of their staff and patients,
- and a good leader should avoid using money and resources on implementing solutions that are not contributing factors for their organization.
If you or a loved one has been victimized by improper hospital care leading to a fall in the McKinney area, contact the attorneys at Wormington & Bollinger today for your free consultation.