Fall risk management using clinical decision support in a rural nursing-led primary care practice

The leading cause of injuries among older adults in the United States is unintentional falls. The American Geriatrics Society/British Geriatrics Society promote fall risk management in primary care; however, this is challenging in low-resource settings.

Archer Family Health Care (AFHC), an Advanced Practice Registered Nurse (APRN)-managed and federally designated rural health clinic, identified a care gap with falls adherence to guidelines for patients at higher risk for falls.

The aim of this quality improvement effort was to integrate an evidence-based fall risk management tool in a rural nurse-managed primary care practice. A standardized fall risk management process with a new brief paper-based clinical decision support (CDS) tool was developed and tested in two phases.

Phase 1 focused on developing a fall risk management CDS tool, identifying the primary care visit workflow, communicating the workflow patterns to the AFHC staff, and collaborating with the staff to identify when and who should implement the tool. Phase 2 focused on implementation of the fall risk management CDS tool into standard practice among older adults aged 65 years and older.

We found that integrating the tool did not disrupt the workflow of primary care visits at AFHC. The most common recommended intervention for patients at risk of falling was daily vitamin D supplementation.

This project revealed that it is feasible to introduce a brief fall risk management decision support tool in an APRN-managed rural primary care practice.