Capstone Project Change Proposal – Improving a Fall Prevention Program in a Clinical Environment. Improving a Fall Prevention Program in a Clinical Environment

Background

University of Louisville Hospital is a Level Trauma 1 Center in the state and nearby surrounding states.  Admissions records over 3,000 patients a year and half of them are from outside of the county. Decreasing patients falls is the most important.  In order to promote this proposition we need to set up teams that are willing to work together and communicate. University of Louisville hospital has had a total of 45 falls this year from January thru May.  According to research, falls have been around for over 50 plus years.  Incident reports are avoided when these happen the best thing is adverse events. Capstone Project Change Proposal – Improving a Fall Prevention Program in a Clinical Environment. Healthcare facilities need to make sure they understand the interventions and not focus on the quantity of falls which is very important. Inpatient fall rates range from 1.7 to 25 falls per 1,000 patient days, depending on the care area, with geropsychiatric patients having the highest risk (NCBI, 2007).  Falls inpatient has increased in some facilities. The facility that I am employed at fall cases have decreased through interventions and hourly rounding.  Falls may never be fixed but we can all work together to decrease the chances and give the proper teachings.

Problem Statement

            According to research falls have been around for over 50 plus years.  Incident reports are avoided when these happen the best thing is adverse events. Falls in hospital are associated with excess financial and opportunity costs (Oxford Academic, 2008).  The majority of falls in healthcare facilities are patients over 70 years of age and the youth between 18-39 years of age. Falls inpatient has increased in some facilities and this is why interventions are needed. Falls can be very costly towards everyone’s pockets and also their health.  Prolonged hospital and even injuries such as fractures and death can occur if proper precautions are not in place. Liabilities can also occur which can cost the hospital more funds than actually receiving to improve better care.   Consequently, various hospitals falls, prevention programs have been implemented in the last decades (BMC Health Services Research, 2006). Capstone Project Change Proposal – Improving a Fall Prevention Program in a Clinical Environment. Fall cases have decrease over time at the facility that I am employed at and this was all through hourly rounding and building a rapport with you patients.  We as a team can always help fix the issues at hand, falls may never be completely solved but they can be decreased through teamwork and dedication. Falls may never be fixed but we can all work together to decrease the chances and survival rates through proper teachings and statistical facts.

 Change Proposal

            In order to promote safety and prevent falls within all healthcare facilities the plan of care that promotes, reassurance, full assessment and communication. The purpose to change fall prevention strategies in our facility is to decrease falls and provide advance care through evidence based research. The proper education and research will introduce more expected outcomes. There will be some challenges and barriers that may interfere with this intervention.  There will be multiple ways that this research will be used in order to be successful.  Encouraging engagement and participation will affect the quality improvement process such as implementing small scale demonstrations which are less difficult to manage. Capstone Project Change Proposal – Improving a Fall Prevention Program in a Clinical Environment. Small-scale demonstrations or small tests of change also allow you to refine the new processes, demonstrate their impact on practices and outcomes, and build increased support by stakeholders (AHRQ, 2017). It is important to understand that many changes will be made along the way and learning from these experiences will help with adding change to any obstacles that take place.

PICOT

PICOT is used to help people clarify answers for any problems they may encounter. This will be used in research and evidence based practices that can be used and implemented on a daily basis. The P in PICOT stands for the population or specific cohort that is included in the study.  The I in PICOT stand for the interventions that are used for in treatments during this study.  The C in PICOT stands for the comparison in the study of research. The O in PICOT