Patient Falls
Preventing Patient Falls
The primary goal of every hospital and care facility is the health and safety of their patients. While some problems, such as illness cannot be avoided, compounding illness with injuries can and should be avoided. Risks such as slipping, tripping, and falling while in the hospital are an increasing problem for hospitals. The purpose of this paper is to identify a preventable patient injury and suggest a corrective policy for the hospital to reduce the amount of incidence.
Identification of Problem
Patient falls are a growing problem in hospitals. In fact, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "In 2004, 14,900 people 65 and older died from injuries related to unintentional falls; about 1.8 million people 65 and older were treated in emergency departments for nonfatal injuries from falls, and more than 433,000 of these patients were hospitalized." (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2007). These falls are not only common, but very expensive. According to the Wall Street Journal, the costs of treating the resulting injuries for a hospital-related fall is equal to $1.08 billion annually, or approximately $15,000 to $30,000 per fall. And roughly 244,500 nursing home residents suffer a serious fall injury annually, with costs estimated at $4.9 billion in 2005 (Landro, 2005). Addittionaly, this problem extends to all ages of patients. According to a 2003 study, half of all patients that fell were less than 65 years old (Hitcho, 2004). These falls are not only expensive...
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Falls THE ISSUE OF ACCIDENTAL FALLS At some point, anyone who had learned how to walk has had the experience of falling down -- it is a universal experience for infants as they gain ambulatory ability. In hospitals, however, the accidental fall is the most reported type of patient safety incident, with elderly patient populations displaying a particular vulnerability (Oliver 2007, p.173). Approximately one-third of adults over the age of sixty-five will
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