WSHA’s new Safety Action Bundle: Protecting patients from falls and fall-related injuries

August 16, 2017

With the expert assistance of Pat Quigley, PhD, MPH, ARNP, CRRN, FAAN, FAANP — a national expert on falls with injury prevention — WSHA has developed several tools to help your hospital assess its effectiveness in preventing falls at the organizational and unit level, including a new and revised Safety Action Bundle, Gap Analysis and Strategic Planning. Falls disproportionally impact the older population, and with an aging inpatient hospital population, there is an increased risk for injurious falls and associated morbidity and mortality.

At an August 4 Falls and Injury Prevention “Boot Camp,” 78 WSHA hospital members joined 15 health care professionals from Alaska to discuss guidelines and implementation science. Small teams conducted gap analyses and committed to implementing the action items to prevent injurious falls at their organizations.

Forty-three percent of all falls occur among patients older than 65. At least 250,000 adults older than 65 are hospitalized each year for hip fractures. All hospitals should assess patients on admission for fall and injury risk factors and develop individualized fall and injury prevention plans of care.

For additional information or support, please contact Lucia Austin at luciaa@wsha.org or 206-216-2515. Dr. Pat Quigley is also available for phone consultation on program development and evaluation. (Lucia Austin)

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