On-Time Falls Prevention

Posted in Current Projects, Current Projects Home Page. Written by hmstrat on November 7th, 2011

Falls are the most frequently reported adverse event among frail nursing home (NH) residents and are an important resident safety issue.  Each year, an estimated 60 percent of long-term care residents fall.  A typical nursing home with 100 beds reports 100 to 200 falls in a year, and it is well known that many other falls go unreported.  Approximately 4% of falls occurring in nursing home facilities result in a fracture and 11% result in injuries other than fractures.

The Preventing Falls In Nursing Homes program, developed with AHRQ funding, builds upon principles of the On-Time project. On-Time approach focuses on earlier and more consistent identification of residents at risk and timely interventions focused on individual risk factors.  On-Time principles are:  1) use clearly defined, standardized risk criteria; 2) use these criteria in HIT to generate reports used in clinical decision making by front-line teams; 3) design processes to use reports to improve communication across disciplines and target interventions focused on resident specific risk; 4) increase CNA involvement through structured communication processes with licensed staff.

Falls Prevention project involved a collaboration with nursing home clinical staff to design clinical decision support tools and implementation strategies to improve risk assessment, earlier identification and interventions, and post-fall monitoring to prevent injurious falls.  Use an approach that balances feasibility in daily nursing home operation with science, findings in literature on risk assessment, and implementation of best practices.

Learn more about our services: On-Time QI