Slips, Trips, and Falls: A Quality Improvement Initiative

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Occupational Safety and Health
• Patient Safety Initiatives

Background:

• Employee safety is a key focus for the Solutions for Patient Safety Network.
• Slips, trips, and falls significantly contribute to the Days Away, Restricted, or Transferred (DART) rate at Children's National Hospital.

Purpose of the Study:

• To reduce employee slips, trips, and falls events at Children's National Hospital.
• To decrease the overall DART rate through targeted safety interventions.

Main Methods:

• Implementation of a multidisciplinary quality improvement program supported by executive leadership.
• Utilization of quality techniques such as Key Driver Diagrams, Pareto Charts, and Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles.
• Design and implementation of novel Environmental Services interventions.

Main Results:

• Achieved a 44.3% reduction in the monthly average of reported slips, trips, or falls events.
• Sustained this reduction over a 2-year study period.
• Demonstrated a significant improvement in employee safety metrics.

Conclusions:

• A leadership-driven, multidisciplinary approach is effective in improving quality initiatives.
• Empowering team leaders to enact real-time policy changes fosters successful interventions.
• The implemented strategies for reducing employee slips, trips, and falls are broadly generalizable to other healthcare settings.