Falls are the leading cause of injury and death among elderly people. In hospital settings, patient falls are one of the most frequently reported events. Even though some of the patients fall are not with the injury, it is estimated that injuries associated with 6% to 44% of inpatient fall (Currie, 2006). A Hospital incident reporting system such as the National Patient Safety Agency, and Adverse Incidence Monitoring System has been developed in order to aid in reporting and responding to these conflicting events in the hospital, but despite the use of the incident report systems, the number of detrimental events may still be overlooked. It is necessary to collect the data, identify the method of collection and the source. The technology would be helpful in determining the adverse trend and see where changes would be the benefit for fall reduction rates to decrease in the acute hospital setting. Medicare will no longer reimburse hospitals for hospital-acquired conditions that develop during a patient's stay at the hospital, that includes patient falls. The CMS implied that this move is made as an attempt to adjust financial enticement with the overall quality of care, by that they are promoting both quality and efficient productivity.
To identify the trend of falls at the hospital where I work the nurse leader can print out the fall risk patients report daily. The printouts report from electronic medical records generated from nurse's assessment. The printouts report is a useful tool for the nurse to identify which patients are at risk for falls. The data collection involved with each fall includes: the time of when the falls occurred day or night, the age of the patient, fall bundle maintained, hourly rounding maintained. The fall risk score before fall, bed alarm in place, last time patient is offered to the restroom, medication such as diuretics, sedative or narcotics before fall, assisted or unassisted fall, and the extent of the injury experienced by the patient as the result of the fall.
