Focused patient education, nurse/patient safety agreement and signage: a toolkit for fall prevention

Fall prevention techniques need to be improved based on the continued number of fall rates incidents that is reported in the healthcare setting. The purpose of this quality improvement project was to implement a multidimensional fall prevention toolkit with the desired outcome reducing fall rate in adult hospitalized patients. The QI study was implemented over a three-month period from December 2018 to February 2019 on two inpatient units; a 40-bed orthopedic/trauma unit and a 24-bed orthopedic/spine unit. Fall rates were compared to pre-implementation data January 2018 to November 2018. The 40-bed orthopedic/trauma unit pre-implementation fall data over 11 months (January 2018 to November 2018) was 14/10237, rate= 0.0013676 or 1.3676 falls per 1000 patient days. The post-implementation falls numbers over a three-month period (December 2018, January 2018, February 2019) was 1/2903, rate= 0.0003445 or 0.3445 falls per 1000 patient days. Exact test, p=0.248, 95% CI for difference: (0.0000387288, 0.00200751). The 24-bed orthopedic/spine unit pre-implementation fall data over 11 months (January 2018 to November 2018) was 9/6141= 0.0014656 or 1.4656 falls per 1000 patient days. The post-implementation falls number over a three-month period (December 2018, January 2018, February 2019) was 1/1722= 0.0005807 or 0.5907 falls per 1000 patient days. Exact test, p=0.642, 95% CI for difference: (-0.000602523, 0.00237220). Overall, there was not a statistical significance between the pre-and post-implementation rates. The QI study however showed clinical significance because the overall fall number of unintentional/unwitnessed fall incidents dropped significantly.DNPIncludes bibliographical reference