Related
- Read the Program Results: Transforming Care at the Bedside
University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center: Testing New Measures to Prevent Falls on a Neurosurgery, Neurology and Rehabilitation Unit
Prevention of Hospital Falls
Dates of Program: January 2006 to September 2007
Field of Work: Prevention of patient falls in hospitals
Synopsis of the Work: Prevention of Hospital Falls was a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in which eight hospitals collaborated with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement in Cambridge, Mass., to test interventions aimed at preventing harmful patient falls. Informed by feedback from the hospitals, the institute developed and disseminated a package of strategies to prevent injuries from patient falls in acute care hospital units.
The side effects of cancer treatments increase the risk for falls. As a participant in Prevention of Hospital Falls, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston developed and tested fall prevention interventions in a neurosurgery, neurology, and rehabilitation unit. The cancer center achieved its goals for reducing falls and harmful falls and staff speculated that two interventions were especially helpful: safety/toileting rounds, and better communication among staff about the highest-risk patients. Read more in the sidebar.
Prevention of Hospital Falls/Transforming Care at the Bedside Sidebars
Stories from the RWJF national programs Prevention of Hospital Falls and Transforming Care at the Bedside
Read the Program Results for Prevention of Hospital Falls View all