The Importance of Preventing Falls for Your Safety

Falls Prevention Month gives us the opportunity to reflect on our falls prevention plans and asses the risk around ourselves and our loved ones.

“A fall can take a serious toll on quality of life and independence. Falls can result in functional impairment, pain, and distress. For these reasons prevention is vitally important to our patients and the hospital” said Neeraj Sharma, Quality and Patient Safety Consultant.

The BCHS Falls Prevention Committee

At the Brant Community Healthcare System (BCHS), we have a Falls Prevention Committee to address exactly that. This multi-disciplinary group includes clinical managers, clinical educators, occupational therapists, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, patient family advisors and quality and risk members who bring together unique perspectives on falls safety to help make sure BCHS is putting their best foot forward when it comes to preventing falls.

When asked why she joined the Falls Prevention Committee, Anna Maynard shared the following: “For me, it was because I have had lots of falls in my life. I’ve had lots of falls at home and a couple in the community. As someone who has been in and out of hospitals a lot, I wanted to improve the patient experience so that other people weren’t at as much of a risk for falling.”

BCHS’ Role in Falls Safety

“BCHS has made many positive changes over the past year to better our falls prevention goals. This includes updating our falls policy, launching an annual learning module that’s mandatory for all staff, sending out knowledge quizzes and surveys on falls prevention and safety, and updating the signage throughout the organization” adds Debbie Neale, Chair of the Falls Prevention Committee.

When patients arrive at the hospital they are assessed based on their risk for falling. Level 1 indicates independence while level 2 suggests that they are at a risk for falls. Protocols are in place to keep patient files up to date and accurate. This includes performing a new falls risk assessment if there has been a change in the patient’s condition or if a fall has occurred.

If a fall does happen, a post falls assessment is completed by a member of the clinical team. In addition, the witness or the responder of the fall will also complete a Safety Incident Management System (SIMS) report to document that the patient safety incident occurred. Family and physicians are notified and after a review of the incident, a Quality of Care Review (QCR) may take place to further explore how and why the event occurred and how to prevent the same or similar event from occurring in the future. The QCR process includes members of the clinical and Quality and Risk team.

In February 2021, the committee revised fall safety signage and distributed them to all clinical areas. This included signage over patient beds, in patient washrooms and at the nursing stations on each unit as reminders to be careful when it comes to falls.

Gail’s Story: “That one incident will stay with me forever”

“From a patient perspective it’s really hard to accept that you can’t do things by yourself. It’s hard to have to wait but I know how important it is not to fall because it can be life altering and fatal” said Anna.

Gail Gloster, a member of the Falls Prevention Committee, relates to this by reflecting on a  patient she encountered while working in long-term care.

“A patient came in for treatment and rehab after previously suffering from a subdural hematoma.

After working extensively with this patient for about a year he was able to get up and walk with a cane, speak, feed himself and get dressed. It was an immense amount of progress and we were all so amazed and happy” said Gail.

Then an unfortunate tragedy struck. One day while she was doing rounds she heard this horrible sound. She went running upstairs to realize that in an attempt to get up from his bed he slipped and hit his head. The ambulance was called but sadly, he did not survive that fall.

“It was just so horrendous. The amount of work that we put in and he put in to get to where he was, to have that happen – so I’ve been really passionate because that one incidence will stay with me forever and I never want to see that repeated” said Gail.

How Can We Work Together to Prevent Falls? 

The Falls Prevention Committee continues to meet to discuss the potential ways that falls safety can be improved.

Some Tips for Falls Safety:

• Make sure bed/chair alarms and other call bells are close by
• Wear non-slip socks and pajama bottoms that aren’t too long
• Be aware of what’s around you – does the furniture move or slide?
• Turn on the lights and if prescribed wear your glasses
• Use proper equipment – do you have your own walker in the hospital?
• Wait for help if you need it

“Slow and safe steps are the key to a successful journey and as hard as it is to give up your freedom and independence, by waiting just a couple of minutes, it could make all the difference” reminds Gail.

For more information please review our Falls Prevention and Safety Information Sheet