System change results in fewer falls and expenses
Tuesday October 23, 2007 -- Jason Thompson
By implementing a standardized process to reduce falls and minimize use of restraints, Tiziana Rivera, manager of seniors’ health and geriatric mental health services, says Trillium Health Centre in Mississauga has been able to save $50,000 a year.

In addition to monetary savings, the work Trillium Health Centre has done around falls reduction has resulted in the organization being named as one of five finalists for the 2007 rL Solutions Canadian Healthcare Excellence in Quality Award (CHEQA).

“To be recognized for it is a very positive recognition for the hard work that a very large group of people collaborated on to get the outcomes we had,” Rivera says.

Trillium Health Centre is one of four Healthcare Insurance Reciprocal of Canada (HIROC) subscribers short-listed for the third annual award. The awards are a joint initiative between rL Solutions, a company that develops software for healthcare organizations, and the Quality Healthcare Network (QHN).

“What we did was uncover everything that was current practice and looked at putting in systems and processes that enabled best practice to happen,” Rivera says, adding their efforts have resulted in a successful demonstration of sustainable outcomes over the past couple of years.

By implementing changes to the system, Rivera says the hospital witnessed an increase in the number of falls, but only because staff had started documenting them with regularity.

“Every time you put a new program in place the rate goes up and so it’s an indication to us that people are feeling comfortable about disclosing adverse events about patients,” Rivera says.

“What was more important was that we had a decrease in injurious falls which means that even though we have a higher reported number of falls, there are less people who have had truly significant adverse outcomes related to that fall,” she says.

Trillium Health Centre had six injurious falls documented in 2006 and only one in 2007 as of Oct. 1. Injurious falls are considered to be serious adverse events such as hip fractures or severe lacerations.

Rivera says there is the opportunity for some of the best practices identified through the falls program to be implemented in other care settings with similar patient populations. She receives two or three calls a month from organizations all over Canada, who are interested in purchasing the program.

“It has a project plan, it’s clearly laid out, (and) it’s just very well-documented,” she says, adding Trillium Health Centre is hoping to publish a resource manual for other organizations wanting to take a similar approach to falls reduction.

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