Abstract

Falls and fall-related injuries create a significant financial burden on patients and healthcare organizations, particularly in adult inpatient hospital units such as rehabilitation and medical-surgical units. Costs associated with additional hospital days, diagnostic testing, and potentially fall-related surgeries can average about $14,000 per fall (The Joint Commission, 2015). Moreover, falls can be devastating in older adults, impacting their overall quality of life. According to Abou et al., 20% of yearly individual costs associated with falls are among patients with Parkinson's disease (2020). This is a proposal to implement a pre-and post-implementation change project. This paper addresses the use of evidence-based hourly rounding as an effective intervention to reduce falls in an adult inpatient hospital setting. The patient population is adults ages 18 and older in a medical-surgical rehabilitation hospital. The hospital is Joint Commission Certified in Hip Fracture Care, Stroke Care and identified as a Stroke Center for Excellence. Common medical conditions treated at the hospital are stroke, spinal cord injuries, amputations, Parkinson's disease, traumatic brain injuries, and hip fractures. An interdisciplinary team approach will be utilized to implement purposeful hourly rounding as a method to decrease fall rates among adults that are determined to be at risk for falling.

Date of publication

Fall 12-6-2020

Document Type

MSN Capstone Project

Language

english

Persistent identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10950/2798

Degree

Masters of Science in Nursing Administration

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