Outpatient falls prevention program outcome: an increase, a plateau, and a decrease in incident reports.

Area of Science:

• Radiology
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Outpatient falls in healthcare settings pose a significant patient safety risk.
• Implementing guidelines is crucial for mitigating fall-related incidents.
• Radiology departments experience unique challenges due to patient mobility and imaging equipment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the multiyear experience of implementing an outpatient falls guideline in a radiology department.
• To analyze trends in outpatient falls following guideline implementation.
• To identify factors associated with fall incidence in radiology patients.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective study design analyzing outpatient falls between April 2006 and September 2013.
• Data collected from an incident reporting system, covering 5,080,512 radiology examinations.
• Study period divided into eight distinct phases to track fall rates over time.

Main Results:

• A total of 327 falls were reported, with an overall rate of 0.64 falls per 10,000 examinations.
• A statistically significant increase in falls was observed between period 2 and period 3 (p=0.02).
• A significant decrease in falls occurred between period 6 and period 7 (p=0.01), with higher rates in older patients (p=0.007).

Conclusions:

• The outpatient falls guideline implementation resulted in a dynamic pattern of incident reports: increase, plateau, and decrease.
• The initial rise in reports may be attributed to the Hawthorne effect, increasing awareness.
• The subsequent decrease suggests the guideline's effectiveness in reducing actual fall incidents over time.