Preventing Falls in a Medical Surgical Unit

The prevention of patient falls continues to remain a challenge in healthcare. Up to 30% of falls often result in injury, which includes fractures, soft tissue trauma, or even death (Titler, 2016). Out of the recorded number of falls in hospitals worldwide, between 4% to 7% result in severe injuries to the patients. Falls in the hospital can prolong a hospital stay, increase hospital costs, and extend a discharge from home to a long-term care facility. With the prolonged stay of patients who fall in hospitals, hospitals costs are in a rise. Falls can increase the cost for not just hospitals but higher hospital bills for the patient as an outcome. There will be a commitment to meet all patient needs and make improvements to what is not working. Safety is critical to a Medical-Surgical unit, and to keep our patients safe from falling, we have fall preventions tools implemented on the unit such as yellow armband, bed, chair alarms and signs outside the door that lets everyone know that the patient is at high risk for falls. An ongoing commitment to the patient have been reinforced, and daily huddles are performed to remind the staff on safety implementations. In order to decrease the patient, fall rate, and increase patient\u27s safety a reinforcement training on the practice and standard work for patient toileting, alarms, and hourly rounding is needed for continuous improvement. Keywords: falls, fall education, safety protocols, and fall preventio