Patient Safety Initiative Results
The WakeMed Center for Patient Safety is committed to implementing patient safety initiatives organization-wide. Part of this proactive process includes extensive tracking of initiative results. While our preliminary findings have been very positive, sufficient time must pass before we can comprehensively evaluate the success of each initiative. Please visit this site periodically to read more about our patient safety results.
Initial Results: Falls Prevention
One of 2005 Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) National Patient Safety Goals was to reduce the risk of patient harm resulting from falls. JCAHO instructed healthcare organizations adapting this goal to assess and periodically reassess each patient's risk for falling, and to determine the potential falls risk associated with the patient's medication regimen. Appropriate actions were to be taken to address those risks.
WakeMed's Falls Committee reviewed all its current processes for preventing falls and identified opportunities for improvement. The committee conducted a root cause analysis for patient falls and developed a plan of action for achieving compliance with the National Patient Safety Goal.
Part of that action plan was to enroll in two national databases in July 2004, which provided data for fall injury and repeat falls. Each WakeMed nursing unit renewed CQI activities on falls reduction, and for the first time, a benchmark for Rehab patients became available. WakeMed is now able to compare its falls data with 210 comparable hospitals nationwide.
Based on fiscal year 2004 falls and falls with injury data and national benchmarks from the two national databases, the Falls Prevention Committee developed the following falls reduction goals:
WakeMed's final data for FY2004 and FY2005 combined falls rate was 3.18, which is below the mean rate of 3.5 to 3.7 percent. There was a seven percent (7%) decrease in falls for FY2005.
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