5 Reasons Why Patient Falls Should be Your Facility’s Top Priority

5 Reasons Why Patient Falls Should be Your Facility’s Top Priority

1.       Keeping patients safe from fall injuries is one of The Joint Commission’s Hospital Accreditation Standards

Initially a National Patient Safety Goal created by The Joint Commission, addressing and managing patients’ risk for falls became a Hospital Accreditation Standard in 2010.

Standard PC.01.02.08
The hospital addresses and manages the patient’s risk for falls.

This means that critical access hospitals must act in accordance with this standard, and facilities looking to become accredited by The Joint Commission must also satisfy these standards.

Patients often look to ratings, reviews, and accreditations when choosing a hospital for care. Meeting The Joint Commission’s Hospital Accreditation Standards gives patients peace of mind and helps ensure that hospitals are providing safe and effective care in accordance with nationally recognized standards.

2.       Falls from the hospital bed are associated with serious complications

Falls from the hospital bed can result in serious injuries including fractures, dislocations, and brain injuries. It should be a facility’s top priority to provide a patient with a safe environment and reduce the risk of falls and associated injuries.

A patient fall can also result in a loss of self-confidence, which can lead to uncertainty in a patient’s abilities and cause repeat falls. A patient may be unwilling to be active and mobile after a devastating fall, which can further increase the risk of repeated falls.

Patients who have experienced a fall in the past are 3 times more likely to experience future falls. By minimizing the initial risk, hospitals can prevent complications from injuries and self-confidence that can increase the prevalence of patient falls.

3.       Hospitals are no longer reimbursed by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for patient falls

As of October 1, 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) has stopped reimbursing hospitals for the additional cost of care when treating a patient harmed by a Hospital Acquired Condition (HAC). Patient fall injuries including fractures, dislocations, and brain injuries are classified as reasonably preventable errors that will no longer be paid for by the CMS.

The average Medicare payment for the treatment of injuries from a patient fall was $24,962. Given the frequency of patient falls, this HAC could add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars in treatment costs alone for individual hospitals each year.

Reducing the rate of falls in your facility could not only save millions of dollars over the span of a decade, but it will improve patient safety throughout your facility.

4.       Patients who fall stay in the hospital longer

Patient falls are the most common Hospital Acquired Condition in the United States, accounting for 75% of all inpatient incidents. On average, patients who experience a fall in the hospital are treated for 12.3 days longer than patients who did not experience a fall.

By reducing the number of falls that occur in the hospital, patient turnover can increase. Not only do hospital-acquired falls cost hospitals money, but treating patients who have experienced falls reduces bed availability. Hospitals can improve efficiency and reduce patient wait times by implementing fall reduction strategies and creating a safer environment for patients.

5.       Seniors are more likely to experience falls

Today, 1 in 5 senior patients are expected to experience a fall in a hospital setting. By 2030, it is expected that seniors will account for over 50% of all hospital admissions and will occupy 59% of available hospital beds. Consequently, more seniors in the hospital means more falls will occur in the hospital setting.

Every year, millions of baby boomers are turning 65 and become part of the prime demographic of falls. Creating strategies to minimize the risk of patient falls today will help reduce the number of expected senior falls in the future.

http://www.americannursetoday.com/article.aspx?id=7634&fid=7364

http://www.jcrinc.com/common/PDFs/fpdfs/pubs/pdfs/JCReqs/JCP-12-09-S6.pdf

CHG Hospital Beds specializes in low hospital beds that are designed to prevent patient falls and related injuries within acute care environments. We are focused on patient and nurse safety and deliver innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.

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What is a Low Hospital Bed?

What is a Low Hospital Bed?

 

You’ve read our 5 Reasons to Use a Low Hospital Bed (http://chgbeds.blogspot.ca/2012/07/5-reasons-to-use-low-hospital-bed.html ) and our follow-up, 5 More Reasons to Use a Low Hospital Bed ( http://chgbeds.blogspot.com/2012/08/5-more-reasons-to-use-low-hospital-bed.html ), but maybe you’re still wondering: what exactly is a low hospital bed?

With origins in the long-term care field, low hospital beds were created with fall prevention and patient safety in mind. Long-term care facilities realized that bed height was a major factor in patient falls and complications such as fractures, dislocations, and brain injuries, and created the low bed as a solution.

Later, hospitals began to implement their own fall prevention strategies for the aging population and new patient safety initiatives, “borrowing” the concept of the low bed.

The Low Hospital Bed Definition

Not every bed that can go high and low can be classified as a low hospital bed. For patient safety reasons, there is a height standard that hospital bed manufacturers must follow. A hospital bed that goes 15 inches low cannot be lumped into the same category as a bed that is 10 inches low to the ground – that extra 5 inches makes all the difference in low hospital beds.

The Hospital Bed Safety Workgroup, created by the FDA and a number of patient safety and national health care organizations, offers a definition to classify low hospital beds:

… The bed is considered “low” if, when the patient is sitting on the side of the bed with feet on the floor, the angle of the patient’s bent knees is 90 degrees or less.

Since the average female leg measures 15 inches from the knee to the foot, and the average male lower leg measures 16.3 inches, the mattress deck height of a hospital bed will need to be between 9 inches and 10.3 inches low to fit this definition. Low hospital beds must consider the height of the mattress, which is often 6 inches thick.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services simply considers the height of a low hospital bed to be between 8 -10 inches off the floor.

Standard hospital beds, at their lowest height, range from 15 inches to 22 inches. Though the extra 5 inches may not seem like much, studies show that a higher bed height can increase a patient’s risk of head and brain injuries from falls.

Low hospital beds are recommended by The Joint Commission, the FDA, and the VA National Center for Patient Safety as a top strategy to reduce patient fall injuries. The low height provides a safe resting height for patients and can minimize the risk of fall injuries such as fractures and dislocations. Patients who have experienced a fall in the past often feel more confident sleeping in a low hospital bed, which can reduce the risk of future falls.

Though typically recommended for use in cases when a patient is at risk of falls, low hospital beds can be used in any acute patient care area. Every patient can feel confident, comfortable and secure when resting at a low height.

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CHG Hospital Beds specializes in low hospital beds that are designed to prevent patient falls and related injuries within acute care environments. We are focused on patient and nurse safety and deliver innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.

The Evolution of the Low Hospital Bed

The Evolution of the Low Hospital Bed

Today’s low hospital beds offer patients comfort and peace of mind, while providing a safe working environment for nurses and staff. But it wasn’t always this way…

The low bed movement sprang up in response to the increase in the number of patient falls from bed in various health care environments. Patients who fall from bed often experience a decreased quality of life as a result of injury and trauma. Treatment for injuries from patient falls can be lengthy and costly, and are often at the facility’s expense.

Long-term care facilities, the pioneers of the low bed movement, saw that the height of the bed itself was an important variable in patient falls. Patients often did not feel secure when sleeping and could not easily get in and out of beds that were too high, which resulted in falls from the bed. The lowest position of regular hospital beds and long-term care beds ranged from 18-22” in height, which was much higher than what a patient was used to at home. Elderly, confused, and medicated patients were much more likely to fall and get seriously injured at these heights.

The first solution to patient falls from bed was to place the mattress on the floor. Though the mattress did effectively reduce falls and patient injuries, mattresses on the floor raised concerns for infection control, staff safety, and quality of life for patients.

Recognizing that using a mattress on the floor was not a sustainable solution for patient falls, nursing home equipment manufacturers set out to create the low bed, and so began the low bed movement.

Years later, after the success of low beds in long-term care facilities, CHG Hospital Beds launched the world’s first low hospital bed.

The Evolution of the Low Hospital Bed

Nursing Home Beds
Fixed Low Height Bed (Echo)	·         The answer to long-term care facilities’ low bed needs ·         Replaced the mattress on the floor ·         The fixed height was still much too low for nurses to safely transfer patients
Solo	·         North America’s first electric low bed, introduced in 1997 ·         Allowed fall-prone patients to rest at a safe height of 7.5” ·         Nurses and staff were able to raise the bed to a working height of up to 25” to reduce back strain ·         Only mobile at its lowest height, which still caused staff injuries
Arro	·         Replaced the Solo as North America’s lowest bed with a low height of 6.75” in 2000 ·         Rose to as high as 33” and was built with staff safety in mind ·         Now mobile in any position ·         Introduced hospital-like advanced features to low beds, including Trendelenberg and footboard staff control panels
Hospital Beds
Spirit	·         First low hospital bed, introduced in 2003 ·         Offered all the same features as traditional hospital beds, but with the added benefit of a low height of 8.75” from the floor ·         Featured a 15-function staff control panel and a central braking and steering pedals for nurse safety ·         Ideal for patients at risk of falls ·         Can be used as a traditional bed in regular acute care patient rooms
Spirit Plus	·         First med-surg low hospital bed, introduced in 2005 ·         Features the same low height as the Spirit, at 8.75” low ·         Exceeds the features of traditional hospital beds with embedded anti-bacterial properties, auto-contour and chair positioning and more ·         Passes all FDA entrapment guidelines
Spirit Select	·         The most advanced med-surg low hospital bed on the market, launched in 2008 ·         Height range from 10” to 35” ·         Offers the same features of the Spirit Plus and more ·         Features an integrated scale, Watchdog Monitoring System, and multi-zone bed-exit alarm ·         Central lock-and-steer system for safe patient handling

 

Low hospital beds have come a long way from the mattress on the floor. With a focus on patient and staff safety, low hospital beds will continue to innovate and evolve, forever changing the way health care facilities address falls

CHG Hospital Beds specializes in low hospital beds that are designed to prevent patient falls and related injuries within acute care environments. We are focused on patient and nurse safety and deliver innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.

Know the Facts on Patient Falls

Know the Facts on Patient Falls

Patient falls are one of the most common and costliest Hospital Acquired Conditions in the United States. Curious about how many patient falls occur in the United States each year? This infographic details the facts and figures on patient falls and what facilities can do to limit future falls.

Here are a few highlights from the infographic:

· 84% of all patient incidents in the hospital are falls

· 30% of patient falls result in serious injury, which can include fractures, dislocations, or brain injuries

·Treating a fall patient costs hospitals 60% more than any other patient condition  

 

 

Click on Image to Enlarge

 

CHG Hospital Beds specializes in low hospital beds that are designed to prevent patient falls and related injuries within acute care environments. We are focused on patient and nurse safety and deliver innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.

 

For more information on fall prevention or to set up a risk-free trial of CHG Hospital Beds contact us today at info@chgbeds.com or 866-516-5446.

Bariatric Patient Falls: What You Need to Know

Over 33% of adults aged 65 and older fall each year in the United States. In the hospital, 20% of senior patients experience falls every year. These falls are most often caused by risk factors like medication use, confusion, or weakness, but there is a new risk factor that can increase the likelihood of patient falls: obesity.

A recent study published by the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society found that bariatric patients over the age of 65 are 12-50% more likely to suffer a fall than normal weight patients. In the same study, it was discovered that the risk of falling increases with a patient’s weight. Patients with a BMI that exceed 40 were found to have the highest risk of experiencing a fall in the hospital.

Read more »

Who Pays for Patient Falls?

As of October 2008, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will no longer pay for patient falls. The CMS ruled that hospitals and health care providers will no longer be reimbursed for preventable Hospital Acquired Conditions (HAC), which means that the CMS will not pay to treat conditions that were not present upon the patient’s admission.  CMS includes “Patient Falls” as one of 10 Hospital‐Acquired Conditions that is high cost, high volume, or both, and can reasonably be prevented through the application of Evidence Based Guidelines.

As a result, it is now the hospital’s responsibility to pay for resulting patient injuries, or required treatments, from a fall in a hospital setting.

Read more »

Patient Falls from Hospital Beds

Patient falls continue to be a serious problem for hospitals. Although hospitals have implemented strategies to reduce and prevent falls, patient falls still make up the largest single category of reported hospital incidents.¹

Patient falls are more common in the elderly, as patients over the age of 65 are 9 times more likely to experience hospital falls than any other age category.² As the United States population continues to age, the number of senior patient falls is expected to rise 78.8% from 2010, without accounting for immigration or extended life expectancies.³ As a result, hospitals should anticipate the growing at-risk population for falls and continue to redefine patient fall prevention strategies.

Among seniors, falls are the leading cause of death due to injury. Falls are the most common cause of nonfatal injuries, and can result in fractures, sprains, or concussions.⁴ Serious head injuries can occur as a result of patient falls, including a subdural hematoma (the bleeding of the brain), which is three times more likely to occur in senior falls.¹ A subdural hematoma can lead to further complications including severe brain herniation, which can be fatal.⁵

Though a low-velocity fall can sound non-threatening to the average person, serious complications are more prone to occur in older patients and can trigger repeat fall events and injuries.¹ Prevention measures should be put in place in order to minimize risk factors and minimize patient injury as a result of falls.

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The Risk Factors Associated with Patient Falls

Patient falls are one of the most frequent and costly hospital acquired conditions in the United States. Beyond the fall itself, hospitals are concerned about adverse events and injuries caused by a patient falling out of bed. These risks and injuries can include bruising, fractures, dislocations, brain injuries, a decline in overall health, and in some instances, death.¹

Patient falls can be one of the most challenging hospital incidents for healthcare providers to approach because of the varying risk factors and circumstances that contribute to each fall.

Who is at Risk for a Fall?

The National Center for Patient Safety has identified a number of physiological and internal risk factors that contribute to a patient’s risk of hospital falls including:²

1. Age
2. Chronic Disease
3. Visual Impairment
4. A Previous Fall
5.  Medication
6. 
   

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