Partnering to prevent falls: using a multimodal multidisciplinary team.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Patient Safety
• Nursing Management

Background:

• High patient fall rates pose a significant risk in healthcare settings.
• Existing approaches to fall prevention require continuous innovation and evaluation.
• Multidisciplinary, multimodal strategies are often necessary for complex patient safety issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To decrease patient fall rates within a healthcare organization.
• To implement and evaluate an innovative fall review process.
• To assess the effectiveness of a multidisciplinary, multimodal approach to patient safety.

Main Methods:

• Initiated an organizational goal to reduce fall rates.
• Implemented a multidisciplinary, multimodal strategy.
• Established a 'Friday fall review' for nurse managers to analyze fall incidents, identify causes, and determine preventive measures.

Main Results:

• Achieved a fall rate below the benchmark for 9 out of 10 consecutive quarters.
• Demonstrated the effectiveness of the Friday fall review process.
• Sustained performance improvement over a significant period.

Conclusions:

• The multidisciplinary, multimodal approach, particularly the Friday fall review, was highly effective in reducing patient falls.
• The success of this initiative prompted broader adoption for quality improvement.
• The review format can be successfully applied to other areas of noncompliance or suboptimal performance in healthcare quality indicators.