Date of Award

8-12-2017

Degree Name

Nursing (M.S.N.)

Department

College of Nursing

First Advisor

Tricia Thomas

Second Advisor

Sylvia Simons

Abstract

Patient falls in acute care tend to be the most common adverse events reported. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services report that fall-related injuries are classified as hospital-acquired conditions and no longer reimburses for the diagnosis and treatment of injuries incurred from falls during hospitalization. Falls are decreasing at too slow a rate even with a variety of fall prevention guidelines being available. Falls are a complex problem within hospitals and the prevention of falls is challenging. Literature supports the individualization of fall prevention interventions based on the risk factors exhibited by a patient. Tailoring interventions to specific fall risk factors will most likely reduce falls compared to the implementation of general interventions. The Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare Targeted Solutions Tool (TST) for falls will be implemented. The TST provides a systematic approach to decreasing falls and falls with injury by measuring the current state, analyzing and discovering causes for falls, and the implementation of targeted solutions. The TST utilizes define, measure, analyze, improve, and control methodology to guide an organization step by step in fall prevention. This approach helps an organization identify factors contributing to falls and then provides targeted solutions to prevent falls for hospitalized adult patients. The nature of this project is to determine if the use of fall prevention interventions that target patient-specific fall risk factors will reduce the number of patient falls and falls with injury in the microsystem of a Neuro Stepdown Unit compared to the universal fall risk prevention practice.

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