Today I’m pleased to launch the new Western Health Falls Improvement Plan 2021-22 to guide our efforts in reducing the instances of falls and related injuries sustained during in-patient hospital stays.
Falls can be devastating to patients – often resulting in injury, longer hospital stays and a loss of independence, particularly for older patients. Unfortunately, despite having many of the traditional falls prevention measures in place across our hospitals, our rate of falls and falls with injury has remained stubbornly high and has worsened throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
In response to these comparatively high rates of falls and falls injuries across Western Health, the Executive established a Falls Taskforce in late 2020 to oversee the development and implementation of a new Falls Improvement Plan. The taskforce conducted a gap analysis against best practice, reviewed data trends, engaged multidisciplinary teams to generate strategies to ensure sustainable solutions and formed four sub-groups focusing on consumer participation, governance, equipment and the environment, and clinical practice education.
The Falls Improvement Plan brings this work together and outlines new clinical guidance and practice that aims to reduce patient falls and improve patient outcomes. These include:
- Improved risk assessments that identify each patient’s specific falls risk factors, and implement linked strategies to reduce the risk
- Single risk assessment completed by nurse, and reviewed by the MDT, ensuring accurate assessment and appropriate interventions
- Falls Champion Program to support local sustainability of initiatives
- New Falls Prevention and Management WeLearn education module for clinicians
- Comprehensive falls prevention and management intranet page with links to all information, education resources, training video, and equipment purchasing details
- Access to evidence-based falls prevention equipment
- Patient information to support education and learning for our patients and families
- Comprehensive falls prevention and management PPG
- New documentation tools in the EMR including post-fall management templates, ward overview page, and post-fall order sets.
To encourage engagement with the new Falls Improvement Plan, we have prizes for the first three departments to fully complete the Falls Prevention and Management module on WeLearn. Prizes are gift vouchers for $500, $250 and $100 for first, second and third placed respectively. Highest completion rate of the WeLearn Package winners will be announced on 30 June.
I’d love to see all clinical staff engage with the Falls Improvement Plan and for our multidisciplinary teams to work in partnership with our patients to challenge traditional practices, implement improvements and embrace innovations. Together, we can reduce falls in our hospitals and give our patients the best chance of a speedy recovery.
Regards,
Shane Crowe, Executive Director Nursing and Midwifery