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The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment

The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment

Introduction

Patient falls are a contributing factor to injuries, deaths and extended lengths of stay in the hospital. There are numerous best practices published by agencies such as Centers for Disease Control (CDC) STEADI and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on fall prevention. It also falls under a provider’s purview to institute additional measures to prevent falls in the interest of patient safety and effective care delivery. Analysis of the risk management program for falls prevention at Inova Fairfax Hospital revealed a gap for which I recommended the use of patient sitters for patients evaluated to be at high risk of falls. This is in line with the recommendations of AHRQ for patient fall prevention. As such, this discussion looks into an educational plan for utilizing patient sitters in the fall prevention risk management program at Inova Fairfax Hospital. The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment

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Rationale

Inova Fairfax Hospital, Virginia, United States, has done a lot with regard to patient safety and preventing hospital falls. As an employee in the trauma unit of the hospital, I have observed that there lacks a policy to have patient sitters watching over patients deemed prone to falls. Patients fall mostly when attempting movement to and from a place while some fall cases are off the bed (Ortelli, 2018)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment. Patients in the trauma unit are often distressed and frequently moved, yet sitters are not part of the staff in that unit. Having patient sitters can help prevent falls since the sitters will act to keep falls from occurring. Implementing such a strategy will manage the risk of falls by foregoing it, thus improving patient safety.

Support

It is possible to evaluate risk of fall in patients based on age, mobility, use of high-risk medications such as those causing dizziness, poor gait, frequent toilet usage, and altered psychological status. For patients at high risk of falls based on the aforementioned factors, care staff can anticipate falls and implement corrective measures. Utilizing sitters is one of the strategies that can be employed (Ortelli, 2018). According to AHRQ, there are 700,000 to one million cases of falls among hospitalized patients and 30% of these are preventable (Ortelli, 2018). Falls result in both financial and reputational loses, with unreimbursed costs for treating fall injuries ranging between $7,000 and $30,000 according to severity of the fall (Spetz et al, 2015)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment. The performance of an organization on fall safety is one of the items publicly reported on. Declining performance in this regard results in loss of reputation. Bock (2017) asserts that hospitals are morally obligated to protect patients from fall risks.

Implementation

Implementing a strategy to use patient sitters to prevent falls for at-risk patients entails the following steps. First, analyzing fall data for fall incidents within the hospital on a unit-by-unit basis. This will provide information on where the intervention of patient sitters is most needed (Sylvia, 2018)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment. The second step is coming up with a hiring plan for patient sitters. This plan contains the job description, qualifications, expected remuneration, and the interviewing process. The third step is recruiting patient sitters and orienting them into the units they are to work with. The final part of implementation is creating an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of preventing patient falls by employing patient sitters.

Challenges

The main challenge to this strategy is resistance from top management because of the financial outlay required. Patient sitters are considered expensive considering that they cause an increase in the hospital’s labor cost (Spetz et al, 2015). Notably, some researchers have suggested that sitters are not necessarily more effective at fall prevention than other mitigation strategies despite being more costly (Bock, 2017). To make the idea of using patient sitters more palatable to the top management, I suggest assigning sitters to a group of patients to watch over, say, one sitter for six patients with alternating rounds. Also, volunteer staff could be employed as patient sitters at no cost to the organization. Patient sitters have the added benefit of providing companionship in addition to care and supervision The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment.

Evaluation

Evaluation is crucial to determining the success of an intervention (Alert, 2015). The evaluation plan created during the implementation stage outlines the desired outcomes of the new strategy. The short-term objectives are to lower number of patient falls in the hospital by 80%, thus reducing length of stay and cost of healthcare given that treating fall injuries costs the hospital. The long-term objectives are to improve organizational performance with regard to fall prevention. This meshes in with the ultimate goal of being an organization of excellent reputation in providing effective healthcare in a safe environment. The success of the strategy will be assessed largely based on whether, and how quickly, an 80% reduction in number of patient falls in the hospital is achieved.

Opportunities.

A notable risk management strategy to prevent patient falls is utilizing helpers in walkways and other areas with a lot of movement. The helpers would be qualified caregivers serving the same purpose as patient sitters except in a more external setting. Implementing such as strategy would serve the imperative of patient safety at Inova Fairfax Hospital The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment.

References

Alert, S. E. (2015). Preventing falls and fall-related injuries in health care facilities. The Joint

Commission, 55, 1-55.

Bock, T. J. (2017). A solution to sitters that won’t fall short. Nursing Management, 48(1), 38-

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44.

Ortelli, T. A. (2018). AHRQ Resources for Preventing Falls in Hospitals. AJN The American

Journal of Nursing, 118(5), 63-64.

Spetz, J., Brown, D. S., & Aydin, C. (2015). The economics of preventing hospital falls. The

Journal of nursing administration, 45(1), 50-57.

Sylvia, M. L. (2018). On Monitoring. Clinical analytics and data management for the DNP. The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment

Springer Publishing Company.

  1. IDENTIFY RISK MANAGEMENT TOPIC
  2. Establish common practice for risk management from regulatory agencies

Patient falls are a contributing factor to injuries, deaths and extended lengths of stay in the hospital. There are numerous best practices published by agencies such as Centers for Disease Control (CDC) STEADI and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) on fall prevention. It also falls under a provider’s purview to institute additional measures to prevent falls in the interest of patient safety and effective care delivery.

  1. Outline risk management topic

Analysis of the risk management program for falls prevention at Inova Fairfax Hospital revealed a gap for which I recommended the use of patient sitters for patients evaluated to be at high risk of falls. This is in line with the recommendations of AHRQ for patient fall prevention. As such, this discussion looks into an educational plan for utilizing patient sitters in the fall prevention risk management program at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

  1. SHOW NEED FOR RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGY
  2. Demonstrate a gap exists with regard to patient safety

Inova Fairfax Hospital, Virginia, United States, has done a lot with regard to patient safety and preventing hospital falls. As an employee in the trauma unit of the hospital, I have observed that there lacks a policy to have patient sitters watching over patients deemed prone to falls. Patients fall mostly when attempting movement to and from a place while some fall cases are off the bed (Ortelli, 2018)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment. Patients in the trauma unit are often distressed and frequently moved, yet sitters are not part of the staff in that unit.

  1. Demonstrate how the risk management strategy addresses the gap

Having patient sitters can help prevent falls since the sitters will act to keep falls from occurring. Implementing such a strategy will manage the risk of falls by foregoing it, thus improving patient safety.

  1. PROVIDE DATA TO SUPPORT NEED FOR RISK MANAGEMENT INITIATIVE
  2. Outline measures on which data is collected and analyzed

It is possible to evaluate risk of fall in patients based on age, mobility, use of high-risk medications such as those causing dizziness, poor gait, frequent toilet usage, and altered psychological status. For patients at high risk of falls based on the aforementioned factors, care staff can anticipate falls and implement corrective measures. Utilizing sitters is one of the strategies that can be employed (Ortelli, 2018)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment.

  1. Illustrate the impacts of lacking a risk management program

According to AHRQ, there are 700,000 to one million cases of falls among hospitalized patients and 30% of these are preventable (Ortelli, 2018). Falls result in both financial and reputational loses, with unreimbursed costs for treating fall injuries ranging between $7,000 and $30,000 according to severity of the fall (Spetz et al, 2015). The performance of an organization on fall safety is one of the items publicly reported on. Declining performance in this regard results in loss of reputation. Bock (2017) asserts that hospitals are morally obligated to protect patients from fall risks.

  1. DESCRIBE IMPLEMENTATION STEPS FOR PROPOSED RM STRATEGY 
  2. Analyzing fall data for fall incidents within the hospital on a unit-by-unit basis. This will provide information on where the intervention of patient sitters is most needed (Sylvia, 2018).
  3. Coming up with a hiring plan for patient sitters. This plan contains the job description, qualifications, expected remuneration, and the interviewing process.
  4. Recruiting patient sitters and orienting them into the units they are to work with.
  5. Creating an evaluation plan to assess the effectiveness of preventing patient falls by employing patient sitters
  6. PREDICT LIKELY CHALLENGES TO IMPLEMENTATION AND PROVIDE SOLUTIONS
  7. Identify obstacles

The main challenge to this strategy is resistance from top management because of the financial outlay required. Patient sitters are considered expensive considering that they cause an increase in the hospital’s labor cost (Spetz et al, 2015)The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment. Notably, some researchers have suggested that sitters are not necessarily more effective at fall prevention than other mitigation strategies despite being more costly (Bock, 2017).

  1. Provide possible solutions

To make the idea of using patient sitters more palatable to the top management, I suggest assigning sitters to a group of patients to watch over, say, one sitter for six patients with alternating rounds. Also, volunteer staff could be employed as patient sitters at no cost to the organization. Patient sitters have the added benefit of providing companionship in addition to care and supervision.

  1. ILLUSTRATE THE PLAN TO EVALUATE SUCCESS OF IMPLEMENTING RISK MANAGEMENT PROGRAM
  2. Indicate the role of evaluation

Evaluation is crucial to determining the success of an intervention (Alert, 2015). The evaluation plan created during the implementation stage outlines the desired outcomes of the new strategy.

  1. Outline desired objectives
  2. Lowering number of patient falls in the hospital by 80%, thus reducing length of stay and cost of healthcare given that treating fall injuries costs the hospital.
  3. Improving organizational performance with regard to fall prevention. This meshes in with the ultimate goal of being an organization of excellent reputation in providing effective healthcare in a safe environment.
  4. Outline assessment criteria

The success of the strategy will be assessed largely based on whether, and how quickly, an 80% reduction in number of patient falls in the hospital is achieved.

  1. RECOMMEND FURTHER RISK MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES
  2. Identify additional risk management strategy

A notable risk management strategy to prevent patient falls is utilizing helpers in walkways and other areas with a lot of movement.

  1. Indicate the value of the additional strategy

The helpers would be qualified caregivers serving the same purpose as patient sitters except in a more external setting. Implementing such as strategy would serve the imperative of patient safety at Inova Fairfax Hospital.

References

Alert, S. E. (2015). Preventing falls and fall-related injuries in health care facilities. The Joint

Commission, 55, 1-55.

Bock, T. J. (2017). A solution to sitters that won’t fall short. Nursing Management, 48(1), 38-

44.

Ortelli, T. A. (2018). AHRQ Resources for Preventing Falls in Hospitals. AJN The American

Journal of Nursing, 118(5), 63-64.

Spetz, J., Brown, D. S., & Aydin, C. (2015). The economics of preventing hospital falls. The

Journal of nursing administration, 45(1), 50-57.

Sylvia, M. L. (2018). On Monitoring. Clinical analytics and data management for the DNP. The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment

Springer Publishing Company

The purpose of this assignment is to create an educational program that supports the implementation of risk management strategies in a health care organization. In this assignment, you will develop an outline for an “in‐service”‐style educational risk management program for employees of a particular health care organization that will then form the basis for a PowerPoint presentation in Topic 5. Select your topic for this educational session from one of the proposed recommendations or changes you suggested in the Risk Management Program Analysis – Part One assignment to enhance, improve, or secure compliance standards in your chosen risk management plan example. Create a 500‐750-word comprehensive outline that communicates the following about your chosen topic: Introduction: Identify the risk management topic you have chosen to address and why it is important within your health care sector. Rationale: Illustrate how this risk management strategy is lacking within your selected organization’s current risk management plan and explain how its implementation will better meet local, state, and federal compliance standards. Support: Provide data that indicate the need for this proposed risk management initiative and demonstrate how it falls under the organization’s legal responsibility to provide a safe health care facility and work environment. Implementation: Describe the steps to implement the proposed strategy in your selected health care organization. Challenges: Predict obstacles the health care organization may face in executing this risk management strategy and propose solutions to navigate or preempt these potentially difficult outcomes. Evaluation: Outline your plan to evaluate the success of the proposed risk management program and how well it meets the organization’s short-term, long-term, and end goals. Opportunities: Recommend additional risk management improvements in adjacent areas of influence that the organization could or should address moving forward. You are required to incorporate all instructor feedback from this assignment into Educational Program on Risk Management Part Two ‐ Slide Presentation assignment in Topic 5. To save time later in the course, consider addressing any feedback soon after this assignment has been graded and returned to you.

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It may be helpful to preview the requirements for the Topic 5 assignment to ensure that your outline addresses all required elements for submission of the final presentation. You are required to support your statements with a minimum of six citations from appropriate credible sources. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required. This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion. The Educational Program For Preventing Patient Falls Assignment