Fall prevention best practices

[pammy007]

I am looking to find hospitals that use a pre-admission pt fall self assessment that the patient completes to indicate his/her risk for falls. Does anyone use such a tool as part of the admission information or with pre-admission information?

[lrobinson5]

We have to complete a fall assessment q shift. We use the Morse fall risk score. Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care

[Chixie]

We dont have one that the patient completes,but we complete one as part of the basic admission pack and is supposed to be updated weekly/if anything changes with the patient. We also use MORSE falls risk score, the only problem is that all 99% of our patients score over 75 on it making them very high risk of falls.

[jadelpn, LPN, EMT-B]

There are very few patients who will not be a fall risk. Part of an initiative to reduce falls requires a seperate care plan--and documentation that you follow said plan of care. And reference in your daily notes--ie: call bell in reach, hourly rounding with bathroom offer--PT consult if patient doesn't move well.

Just as a reminder, one can initiate a fall risk protocol, but the key is to then continue to assess and document same.

[THELIVINGWORST, ASN, RN]

All the protocol in the world won't make people LISTEN and ask for help before getting up. So frustrating.

[pammy007]

I am looking to find hospitals that use a pre-admission pt fall self assessment that the patient completes to indicate his/her risk for falls. Does anyone use such a tool as part of the admission information or with pre-admission information?

Thanks for all the responses. We have the inhospital tools and ask patient on admission about their risk for falls using the Morse assessment. We are looking at form from CDC where the patient does a self assessment prior to admission or as part of the admission information. There does not seem to be many out there that are doing this.

[pammy007]

I agree. All of the post surgical/procedure patients are already put "at risk" and most of our geriatric population. We are looking at starting a form as part of pre-admission or as part of the admission packet that patients assess themselves about their fall risks in hopes that it will "jog" their memory and increase awareness of their risk.

[brandy1017, ASN, RN]

Thanks for all the responses. We have the inhospital tools and ask patient on admission about their risk for falls using the Morse assessment. We are looking at form from CDC where the patient does a self assessment prior to admission or as part of the admission information. There does not seem to be many out there that are doing this.

The people that are most likely to fall are the altered mental status patients who frankly couldn't fill out a form if they wanted to, nor are going to remember how to call for help! The only way to prevent falls is to have enough staff able to answer both call lights and bed alarms and also have sitters for agitated confused patients that are at risk of hurting themselves or others!

I've heard of gimmicks like offering pizza or ice cream if there are no falls over a long period of time. Hello we aren't letting patients fall on purpose! We're not miraculously going to be able to prevent falls because we want a free pizza! It is insulting to propose such solutions! Nobody wants someone to fall, we don't want them injured, nor do we want to risk injury ourselves when we have to get them up from the floor and safely back to bed! Think about it!