Post Fall Management a 10 Step Approach to Success

Patient falls are the single largest category of incidents in acute care hospitals and long-term care settings. Approximately 70% to 80% of all incident reports are related to patient falls. Falls can have devastating consequences. The human cost of falling includes distress, pain, injury, loss of confidence, loss of independence and increased morbidity and mortality. Falling also affects healthcare staff, patient's family members, and organizations themselves in terms of financial...
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Patient falls are the single largest category of incidents in acute care hospitals and long-term care settings. Approximately 70% to 80% of all incident reports are related to patient falls. Falls can have devastating consequences. The human cost of falling includes distress, pain, injury, loss of confidence, loss of independence and increased morbidity and mortality. Falling also affects healthcare staff, patient's family members, and organizations themselves in terms of financial burden and risk of litigation.

While patients of any age can, and do fall, the problem is most acute for older patients for several reasons. First, the overwhelming majority of falls occur in patients aged 65 and older. Moreover, 20% to 50% of older patient experience recurrent or repeat falls. Second, older patients are more susceptible to falls than younger age patients. A major reason for this is that older patients tend to have numerous chronic health conditions and take multiple medications to control these conditions that increases their risk of falling.

A fall, in most instances, is not an 'unavoidable accident', but instead represents a sign or symptom of an underlying health problem that requires attention. Nurses, are often, the first ones on the scene to care for patients who fall. And not infrequently, nursing staff either bear witness to the fall or provide the initial assessment of a patient post fall. Subsequently, nurses are in a key position to prevent repeat falls in the patient. Therefore, it's vital that nursing staff know what is required in the event of a patient fall.

When a fall occurs, often, the only immediate response is to rule out any injury and or life-threatening conditions that might have occurred. By concentrating only on the consequences of the fall, the causative factors responsible for falling or risk factors for another fall will go undetected. To reduce the risk of repeat falls, post fall management, which not only investigates the possibility of injury, but also the causes of the fall, and immediate strategies or actions to prevent a repeat of the event needs to occur.

Over the past decade, knowledge of falls has expanded beyond the assumption that falls are mainly the result of 'accidents' or careless patients. But rather, that falls, especially repeat falls, are a multidimensional phenomenon, attributable to age-related changes, chronic and acute diseases, medication side effects, environmental causes and other etiologies. As a result, acute hospitals and long-term care settings are starting to recognize the importance of an organized approach to patients who fall. All too often, however, post fall management remains a missing piece of the puzzle when managing falls. Fall prevention guidelines, for the most part, are incomplete with regard to comprehensive post full management and leave much to the discretion of the individual nurse, who is evaluating the fallen patient at the time. It is therefore important that organizations/facilities not only have available an organized post fall process in place, but also a program that is standardized so that the highest standard of care following a fall can be provided by staff.

Post Fall Management: A 10 Step Approach to Success provides the staff of acute hospitals and long-term care settings with all the information needed to have a successful post fall management program. The stepwise approach allows for the consistent gathering of key information at each step needed to determine possible underlying causes of a fall, while also addressing immediate actions or strategies to avoid repeat falls. Included in the book are a set of organizational components needed to achieve and maintain the program.