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New Tools Help Health Providers Reduce Patients' Risk of Falls

March 5, 2013

Health care providers have known for a long time that falls among patients are a serious problem. But they haven't always agreed on the best way to prevent them. A new toolkit from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) focuses on the challenges that hospitals face as they try to develop and sustain a fall-prevention program. In addition to helping hospitals gain support for this process, the toolkit describes the steps that organizations can take to put the best fall-prevention strategies into practice.

Another program is an AHRQ-funded project from a Wisconsin health system, a health technology company, and a university-based school of nursing. They developed a computerized program with four individual care plans, based on patients' risk for a fall and their ability to follow instructions on how to prevent one. The program helps nurses develop fall-prevention plans that match patients' needs and that can go in patients' electronic health records. 

Internet Citation: New Tools Help Health Providers Reduce Patients' Risk of Falls. February 2013. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Rockville, MD.

To access these tools, go to: http://www.ahrq.gov/news/columns/navigating-the-health-care-system/020513.html