Rural hospital takes action to minimize risk for falls in elderly patients
Partners with university to develop wireless falls reporting system
Wednesday November 19, 2008 -- Natalie Miller
With the average age of patients being between 70 and 80 years old, a rural community hospital is taking an active role to help minimize seniors' risk of falling while hospitalized.

Leamington District Memorial Hospital, in partnership with the University of Windsor's school of business, is using a program aimed at reducing patient falls that involves an electronic tracking and reporting system.

"It's beneficial for all patients," says Barbara Tiessen, vice-president of patient services and chief nursing executive at the 88-bed hospital.

"Everybody who comes in is at risk for a fall," she says, noting the hospital's catchment area has a high senior population.

The in-patient falls reporting system helps staff minimize the risk of falls through software that tracks a patient's history. By entering a patient's name, staff can identify if the person has fallen before and if there has been a recent fall, what factor(s) may have attributed to the fall.

For instance, has the patient's medication been changed? This electronic, individualized report is used to identify potential causes and promote solutions to help prevent future risk of falls, Tiessen explains. The fall report was piloted by 25 nurses in in-patient clinical units at the hospital.

The report is entered into a wireless software system that automatically downloads fall data into a server. This allows staff to put interventions in place in 'real time' at point of care.

Other benefits include staff access to reports which are tailored and sensitive to individual patient needs and the ability to quickly develop, implement and evaluate fall prevention interventions. As well, managers can see data related to falls from a unit-by-unit perspective.

"We spent a lot of time" on this initiative, Tiessen says.

As a result of the partnership project, there is now "significant enhancement in fall prevention interventions."

If you have feedback on this article, e-mail natalie(at)axiomnews.ca or call the newsroom at 800-294-0051.