Open Forum

Hello, I am a clinical educator for a very large ambulatory system. We need to standardize education and training across our 600+ care sites within 52 counties regarding Safe Patient Handling and Fall Prevention. We are working on prevention tools & strategies to prevent patient, visitor, and staff falls and injuries. 

Has anyone implemented any fall prevention strategies within their ambulatory system? What worked and what didn't?

Does anyone have a policy related to assisting patients to/from their car from their appointment or throughout the office?

Are your Ambulatory staff trained in safe-patient handling methods and assistive devices?

What is your policy if a mobility impaired patient does not have a caregiver or someone to help them with mobility?

Any insight or direction is appreciated!

Thanks,

Brandi Miller BSN, RN, CNOR
Clinical Educator

OhioHealth Physician Group

I've done work in this space. Here are a few publications that might help. I'm also presenting on this topic at conference this year. Happy to connect and talk in person if you're attending. I'd also recommend looking at the US Preventive Service Task Force recommendations on fall prevention and CDC STEADI resources.  If you have access to a librarian they may be able to help pull additional resources to help develop a plan.

Rice, H., Garabedian, P. M., Shear, K., Bjarnadottir, R. I., Burns, Z., Latham, N. K., Schentrup, D., Lucero, R. J., & Dykes, P. C. (2022). Clinical Decision Support for Fall Prevention: Defining End-User Needs. Applied clinical informatics, 13(3), 647–655. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0042-1750360

Shear, K., Rice, H., Garabedian, P. M., Bjarnadottir, R., Lathum, N., Horgas, A. L., Harle, C. A., Dykes, P. C., & Lucero, R. (2023). Management of Fall Risk Among Older Adults in Diverse Primary Care Settings. Journal of applied gerontology : the official journal of the Southern Gerontological Society, 42(11), 2219–2232. https://doi.org/10.1177/07334648231185757

Shear, K., Rice, H., Garabedian, P. M., Bjarnadottir, R., Lathum, N., Horgas, A. L., Harle, C. A., Dykes, P. C., & Lucero, R. (2023). Usability Testing of an Interoperable Computerized Clinical Decision Support Tool for Fall Risk Management in Primary Care. Applied clinical informatics, 14(2), 212–226. https://doi.org/10.1055/a-2006-4936

Schentrup, D., Middlemas, A., Shear, K., Bjarnadottir, R. I., & Lucero, R. J. (2022). Fall risk management using clinical decision support in a rural nursing-led primary care practice. Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners, 34(8), 1033–1038. https://doi.org/10.1097/JXX.0000000000000751

https://uspreventiveservicestaskforce.org/uspstf/draft-recommendation/falls-prevention-community-dwelling-older-adults-interventions#:~:text=The%20USPSTF%20concludes%20with%20moderate,at%20increased%20risk%20for%20falls.

https://www.cdc.gov/steadi/index.html

Thank you for that insight, Aleesa. We are working alongside our system risk management team on this topic.

All are invited to take advantage of a self-directed, online, accredited module we created for ambulatory care teams on the subject of Fall Risk Screening, Assessment and Care Planning. It has been renewed for another 2 years and there is no cost. See attached pdf for details.

Attachment(s)

71419 Brochure.pdf   206 KB 1 version