West Valley Medical Center - October 01, 2019

Renee DeHaas,
Director of Patient Safety

Fall contract recognized as best practice tool

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) estimates there are 700,000 to 1 million hospitalized patient falls each year. Additionally, almost a third of these patient falls result in injury to the patient. In lieu of these statistics, we have increased the focus we place on fall reduction and safe ambulation for our patients at West Valley.

Part of this effort includes highlighting the importance of reporting safety events facility-wide. With an increase in event reporting we can begin to understand our baseline data in relation to falls and other events, and start to work on trending for safety events we can affect positively.

Recognition of where our falls take place, how the incidents happen and if we have proper measures in place to prevent this type of patient safety event, has motivated positive change in all areas. A fall debrief tool was developed to help staff identify risk factors we can mitigate at a department or facility level, and this tool is now submitted with every patient fall.

A fall contract was developed and recognized by The Joint Commission as a best practice tool for patient safety. The contract has been adopted and fully implemented on the Medical/Surgical/Pediatric floor to help patients and families identify their risks for potential fall. Year to date 2018 vs 2019, the Med/Surg/Peds floor has experienced 30% reduction in falls and 60% reduction in falls with injury.

It is a priority for our nursing leaders to work towards implementation facility wide. It is work like this that promotes the safety of our patients and increases the safe work environment for our staff. We are proud of the work our staff are doing to create a safer patient experience and thank you for your support of their efforts.

We appreciate your engagement and efforts in driving high quality care for our patients and providing a safe environment of care for our staff. Please reach out to the leaders in your area or our Quality Department ((208) 455-6505) if you have any specific questions regarding fall reduction initiatives or any other improvement initiatives. Thank you for all that you do.

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