The Impact of Restraint Elimination on a Unit's Fall Rate

Purpose:
To eliminate restraints without increasing patient falls.

Significance:
Over the last several years hospitals have been required by regulatory agencies to implement standards of care that minimize the use of restraints and decrease fall rates. The the ortho/neuro unit had the highest restraint usage and the highest fall rates in our acute care hospital.

Strategy and Implementation:
The strategy was to implement a comprehensive evidence based program to eliminate the use of restraints and reduced falls. Strategies included sitter program, use of bed alarms, patient rounding and eliminations of unnecessary lines and/or catheters.

Evaluation:
NDNQI and internal data were used to evaluate outcomes for Restraint and Fall rates pre and post implementation of the program.

Implications for Practice:
Implementation has successfully eliminated the use of restraints and has reduced falls.The development of a restraint free environment has dropped falls to their lowest rate in three years. These preliminary results provided evidence for minimizing restraint use in order to reduce patient fall.