Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Published for Joint Falls resulting in injury are a prevalent patient safety problem. Elderly and frail
Commission accredited patients with fall risk factors are not the only ones who are vulnerable to falling in
organizations and interested health care facilities. Any patient of any age or physical ability can be at risk for a
health care professionals, fall due to physiological changes due to a medical condition, medications, surgery,
Sentinel Event Alert identifies procedures, or diagnostic testing that can leave them weakened or confused. Here
specific types of sentinel and
adverse events and high risk
are some statistics about falls in health care facilities:
conditions, describes their Every year in the United States, hundreds of thousands of patients fall in
common underlying causes, hospitals, with 30-50 percent resulting in injury.1-6
and recommends steps to Injured patients require additional treatment and sometimes prolonged hospital
reduce risk and prevent future stays. In one study, a fall with injury added 6.3 days to the hospital stay.7
occurrences.
The average cost for a fall with injury is about $14,000.8,9
Accredited organizations
should consider information in Falls with serious injury are consistently among the Top 10 sentinel events reported
a Sentinel Event Alert when to The Joint Commissions Sentinel Event database*, which has 465 reports of falls
designing or redesigning with injuries since 2009, with the majority of these falls occurring in hospitals.
processes and consider Approximately 63 percent of these falls resulted in death, while the remaining
implementing relevant patients sustained injuries. In addition, ECRI Institute reports a significant number
suggestions contained in the
of falls occurring in non-hospital settings such as long-term care facilities.10
alert or reasonable
alternatives.
Analysis of falls with injury in the Sentinel Event database reveals the most
Please route this issue to common contributing factors pertain to:
appropriate staff within your Inadequate assessment
organization. Sentinel Event Communication failures
Alert may only be reproduced
in its entirety and credited to
Lack of adherence to protocols and safety practices
The Joint Commission. To Inadequate staff orientation, supervision, staffing levels or skill mix
receive by email, or to view Deficiencies in the physical environment
past issues, visit Lack of leadership
www.jointcommission.org.
Research and quality improvement efforts
Preventing falls is difficult and complex. A considerable body of literature exists on
falls prevention and reduction.1-6,11,12 Successful strategies include the use of a
standardized assessment tool to identify fall and injury risk factors, assessing an
individual patients risks that may not have been captured through the tool, and
interventions tailored to an individual patients identified risks. In addition,
systematic reporting and analysis of falls incidents are important components of a
falls prevention program. Historically, hospitals have tried to reduce falls and to
some extent have succeeded but significant, sustained reduction has proven
elusive. Numerous toolkits and resources have been assembled with the
knowledge gained through research and quality improvement initiatives by
organizations including the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ),
__________________________ ECRI Institute, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), Institute for Clinical
Systems Improvement (ISCI), the Joint Commission Center for Transforming
Healthcare, and U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for Patient
Safety. See the Resources section at the end of this alert for links to these
organizations work.
www.jointcommission.org * The reporting of most sentinel events to The Joint Commission is voluntary and represents only a
small proportion of actual events. Therefore, these data are not an epidemiologic data set and no
conclusions should be drawn about the actual relative frequency of events or trends in events over time.
Sentinel Event Alert Issue 55
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www.jointcommission.org
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www.jointcommission.org
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collaborative project involving seven hospitals and Hospital in Tampa, and others to develop this toolkit,
the Joint Commission Center for Transforming which is designed to aid facilities in developing
Healthcare, and subsequently validated in five comprehensive falls and injury prevention programs.
additional hospitals. It is currently being pilot tested Available since 2004, this was the first national
in non-hospital settings, such as ambulatory and toolkit to focus on fall injury reduction, specifically hip
long-term care facilities. fractures and head injury. The current edition, with
updates and revisions, was posted in July 2014.
Joint Commission-accredited organizations can
access the TST through (1) a quick registration VA National Center for Patient Safety:
process by clicking the Request Access button, or Implementation Guide for Fall Injury Reduction29
(2) the organizations secure Joint Commission This guide is a focused version of eight goals to
Connect extranet. Note: Data entered into the TST help prevent falls and fall-related injuries, continuing
are not shared with Joint Commission surveyors or VAs national guidance to prevent moderate to
staff. serious fall-related injuries across settings of care.
This implementation guide is designed for
VA National Center for Patient Safety: Falls administrative, clinical, quality and patient safety
Toolkit25 Staff from the VAs National Center for personnel in hospitals, long-term care, and home
Patient Safety worked with the Veterans Integrated care, to further enhance the programs infrastructure
Service Network 8 Patient Safety Center of Inquiry and capacity to fully implement a fall injury
(VISN 8 PSCI), part of the James A. Haley Veterans prevention program.
fall prevention
Home care
Hospital
See the content of these standards on The Joint Commission website, posted with this alert.
www.jointcommission.org
Sentinel Event Alert Issue 55
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References
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setting. Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 1998;24:7-15. Factors. January 2013. Agency for Healthcare Research
doi: 10.1111/j.1525-1497.2004.30387.x. and Quality, Rockville, Maryland (accessed May 18, 2015).
2. Fischer I, et al: Patterns and predictors of inpatient falls 18. Morse JM, et al: A prospective study to identify the fall-
and fall-related injuries in a large academic hospital. prone patient. Social Science and Medicine, 1989:28(1)81-
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, 6.
2005;26(10):822-827. 19. Morse JM, et al: Development of a scale to identify the
3. Healey F, et al: Falls in English and Welsh hospitals: a fall-prone patient. Canadian Journal on Aging, 1989;8;366-
national observational study based on retrospective 7.
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Quality & Safety In Health Care, 2008;17(6):424-430. California: Sage Publications, 1997.
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in a hospital setting. Journal of General Internal Medicine, Inc. (accessed May 18, 2015).
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(Prepared by the Southern California-RAND Evidence- tools in an acute care setting. Journal of Advanced Nursing,
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10062-I.) AHRQ Publication No. 13-E001-EF. Rockville, 25. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, VA National
Maryland: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Center for Patient Safety: Falls Toolkit (accessed July 10,
2013. 2015).
7. Wong C, et al: The Cost of Serious Fall-Related Injuries 26. Dykes PC, et al: Why do patients in acute care
at Three Midwestern Hospitals. The Joint Commission hospitals fall? Can falls be prevented? Journal of Nursing
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doi:10.1007/s11999-011-1932-9. 28. Degelau J, et al: Prevention of Falls (Acute Care), Third
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for the prevention of fall in hospital: economic evaluation Improvement; (accessed Aug. 17, 2015).
from a randomized controlled trial. BMC Medicine. 29. VA National Center for Patient Safety: VA National
2013;doi:10.1186/1741-7015-11-135. Center for Patient Safety Implementation Guide for Fall
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11. Dykes PC, et al: Fall prevention in acute care hospitals: _________________________________________________
a randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical
Association. 2010 Nov 3; 304(17):1912-8. Patient Safety Advisory Group
12. Ang E, et al: Evaluating the use of a targeted multiple The Patient Safety Advisory Group informs The Joint
intervention strategy in reducing patient falls in an acute Commission on patient safety issues and, with other
care hospital: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of sources, advises on topics and content for Sentinel Event
Advanced Nursing 2011;67:1984-92. Alert. Members: James P. Bagian, MD, PE (chair); Frank
13. DuPree E, et al: A new approach to preventing falls with Federico, BS, RPh (vice chair); Jane H. Barnsteiner, RN,
injuries. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 2014;29(2):99- PhD, FAAN; James B. Battles, PhD; William H. Beeson,
102. MD; Bona E. Benjamin, BS, Pharm; Patrick J. Brennan,
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improving quality of care. Prepared by RAND Corporation, Cindy Dougherty, RN, BS, CPHQ; Michael El-Shammaa;
Boston University School of Public Health, and ECRI Marilyn Flack; Steven S. Fountain, MD; Tejal Gandhi, MD,
Institute under Contract No. HHSA290201000017I TO #1. MPH, CPPS; Martin J. Hatlie, Esq; Robin R. Hemphill, MD,
AHRQ Publication No. 13-0015-EF. 2013. Rockville, MPH; Jennifer Jackson, BSN, JD; Paul Kelley, CBET; Heidi
Maryland: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality B. King, MS, FACHE, BCC, CMC, CPPS; Ellen Makar,
(accessed July 22, 2015). MSN, RN-BC, CCM, CPHIMS, CENP; Jane McCaffrey,
15. Boushon B, et al: How-to Guide: Reducing patient MHSA, DFASHRM; Mark W. Milner, RN, MBA, MHS;
injuries from falls. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Institute for Grena Porto, RN, MS, ARM, CPHRM; Matthew Scanlon,
Healthcare Improvement, 2012 (accessed Aug. 17, 2015). MD; Ronni P. Solomon, JD; Dana Swenson, PE, MBA
16. The Joint Commission Center for Transforming
Healthcare: Targeted Solutions Tool for Preventing Falls
(accessed August 19, 2015).
www.jointcommission.org