Assignment 3: PICOT Question and an Evidence-Based Approach Definition of the Practice Issue to Be Explored Under the PICOT Approach

Assignment 3: PICOT Question and an Evidence-Based Approach Definition of the Practice Issue to Be Explored Under the PICOT Approach Approximately seven hundred thousand to one million patients staying in US healthcare facilities fall each year, encountering lacerations, fractures, internal bleeding, and other fatal injuries that prolong their hospital stay and raise healthcare utilization and costs (AHRQ, 2018). In particular, falls among elderly patients in US medical care institutions are on the rise. According to the CDC (2018), in 2016 alone, 29,668 American patients aged 65 years or older died due to a falling incident, implying that falls caused the death of 6.2 out of every 10,000 US seniors in that year. The American public health organization states that in 2007, the US had an average of 4.7 fall-associated deaths for every 10,000 older adults, meaning that the fall-related mortality rate in the US has grown by 31 percent in ten years. The high falls’ prevalence and fallrelated death rates among hospitalized patients have prompted hospitals and other healthcare centers to adopt strategies, such as bed absence detectors and safety/hourly rounds, to minimize and prevent falls among patients during their stays in medical care facilities (Weil, 2015). Based on this backdrop information, the PICOT question that this paper aims to answer is, “Among hospitalized geriatric patients aged 65 years or older (P), how effective are patient bed absence sensors (I) compared to safety/hourly rounds (C) in preventing or reducing fall incidents (O) during patients’ stay in healthcare facilities (T) ?”