A Successful ED Fall Risk Program Using the KINDER 1 Fall RiskAssessment Tool.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Patient Safety
• Healthcare Quality Improvement

Background:

• Emergency departments (EDs) lacked routine falls risk assessments for patients.
• Existing fall assessment tools were designed for inpatients, not ED settings.
• A need existed to develop and implement ED-specific fall prevention practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reduce falls among emergency department patients.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of the KINDER 1 Fall Risk Assessment tool.
• To establish fall risk assessment practices at the point of ED entry.

Main Methods:

• Retrospective review of ED fall data from 2013.
• Implementation of the KINDER 1 Fall Risk Assessment tool.
• Utilized Kotter's change management framework for implementation.

Main Results:

• In the initial 4 weeks, 27% of patients were identified as high risk using the KINDER 1.
• Total falls decreased significantly in the following three quarters.
• Falls without injuries reduced from 0.21 to 0.07 per 1000 patients.
• Falls with injuries reduced from 0.21 to 0.0 per 1000 patients.

Conclusions:

• The KINDER 1 tool is a valuable step in enhancing ED patient safety.
• The project contributes nursing knowledge on performance improvement for patient outcomes.
• Further data on the KINDER 1 tool's use and effectiveness is warranted.