Improving patient safety: implementation of falls prevention strategy in hospital

Fall occur in all types of healthcare institutions and to all patient populations. Falls are the most common adverse event reported in hospitals. To implement appropriate fall prevention strategy in hospital quite great challenge for hospital administration and quality improvement team, especially if strategy never used before. The purpose of this article was to describe the background of fall prevention strategy implementation in acute care hospitals. Patient Safety Goals specify that health care organizations must reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from fall. Hospitals are required to implement a program of fall risk reduction. All hospital staff is responsible for reducing fall risks and ensuring a safe environment free from hazards. The fall risk assessment tools are methods for identifying patients who are at risk for falling. Universal fall interventions should be present for all patients regardless of risk of falling. A postfall analysis should lead to an interdisciplinary professional care plan to reduce the risk of future falls, recurrent falls and injuries. Theory and practice