Hospitals implementing measures from the Joint Commission Center for Transforming Healthcare's "Preventing Falls with Injury" project reduced the number of patient falls by more than one-third.
Additionally, hospitals reduced the number of patients injured in a fall by 62 percent.
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Participating hospitals volunteered to implement the project, which involved empowering patients to play a role in their safety, complete a fall risk assessment, include patients and families in the fall safety program and creating awareness among staff. They used Robust Process Improvement to identify causes and develop solutions to prevent patient falls.
Applying these statistics to an average 200-bed hospital, the Center estimates a hospital could save $1 million annually through fall prevention efforts. A 400-bed hospital could save $1.9 million annually, it estimates.
The Joint Commission is currently developing a Targeted Solutions Tool for preventing falls with injury. The TST is expected to be released in 2015.
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