Fall Risk Reduction in the Home Health Care Setting

Purpose:
The overall goal of this project is to reduce incidence of patient falls in the home health care setting through effective education.

Relevance/Significance:
This project's goal of improving patient safety relevant to fall risk and injury reduction is in keeping with the conference goal of introducing and implementing a viable solution - via a patient friendly education tool - to continually improve multidisciplinary practice with our home care population.

Strategy and Implementation:
High prevalence of falls across the care continuum prompted development and testing of a visual tool to be used in the home care setting to teach patients fall precautions. The Fall Risk Reduction Tool was created by a team of nurses and therapists in a hospital-based home care agency. Pictures of interventions are shown including, in part, the appropriate use of assistive devices, eliminating trip hazards, awareness of medication effects, and counting to ten before walking. The visual tool was tested in a sample of 1451 patients assessed at risk for falls, and over age 65 as part of a falls reduction program that promotes patient participation in care and safety. The two part form was initiated by the home care admitting clinician and thereafter used by multidisciplinary professionals involved in the patient's care during each home visit.

Evaluation:
Results show implementation of this new visual teaching tool has reduced falls, and improved publicly reported outcome benchmarks for ambulation and transfers.

Implications for Practice:
The visual tool makes it possible for nurses to efficiently and effectively teach - to identified interventions - how to reduce patient falls. Promoting awareness of fall risks at home through the use of a visual tool addresses National Patient Safety Goals and the Magnet Culture of Safety.