• E-mail
• Print
• RSS

Tip of the week: Heed the warning signs of resident falls

Contemporary Long-Term Care Weekly, April 23, 2009

Because of the magnitude of hip fracture injuries, long-term care facilities have a vested interest in doing all they can to prevent falls and fractures. Identifying the reason for unsafe behavior and falls, then implementing an individualized plan based on that reason is often the key to success. Residents in long-term care facilities commonly experience several falls before finally sustaining a hip fracture. Many of these have a history of 12 to 30 falls before a serious injury occurs. A legal review takes the number of falls and the time frame into consideration when reviewing the medical record to determine whether a prospective lawsuit has merit. Although allowing the resident to fall repeatedly is less than desirable, the falls should alert you to the resident’s ongoing high risk and the ineffectiveness of the fall prevention care plan (or need for a fall prevention care plan). Do not ignore this warning! As with all other falls, evaluating patterns of falls and modifying the plan of care each time is an important consideration. If the resident falls, the plan is probably not working and needs to be tweaked. Build your plan based on the resident’s individual needs and your assessment of the cause of lack of safety awareness or other reason for falls. Remember to avoid generic safety/fall prevention plans.

This tip is from HCPro’s book The Long-Term Care Legal Desk Reference, by Barbara Acello, MS, RN.

• E-mail to a Colleague
• Print
• RSS
• Archive