FALLS AND FALLS WITH INJURY
At Saint Anne’s Hospital, our staff is committed to the safe care for all our patients. With a fall prevention plan already in place, we continue to explore ways to improve the safety of our patients, as their safety is foremost on our minds.
A fall risk assessment is done on admission for all patients, and continues throughout their hospital stay. Patients are identified as a fall risk and a multidisciplinary team effort is made to prevent falls. Purposeful hourly rounds are conducted by the nursing staff with the patient. During the rounds patients are offered the opportunity to walk/walk to the bathroom with assistance, or be assisted to a bedside commode. They are also assessed for the need to be repositioned, for the presence or absence of pain, for the placement of personal items within close reach, and for the placement of equipment to avoid trip hazard. Environmental assessments are performed to improve the safety of the environment. Bed and/or chair alarms are utilized on patients identified as a fall risk to alert the nursing staff the patient is trying to get out of bed/chair, or has gotten out of bed/chair unassisted. In the event of a patient fall, the nursing staff discuss the incident in the moment and identify factors that may have contributed to the fall, and implement strategies to prevent a repeat fall. The organization continues to monitor falls as they happen and identify opportunities to improve the experience of the hospital stay for all patients.
PRESSURE ULCER PREVALENCE
Throughout the Steward Health Care System, our healthcare teams are dedicated to providing excellent care to our patients. At Saint Anne’s Hospital has a Skin Team comprised of Registered Nurses from each inpatient unit that is coordinated by the Certified Wound Care Nurse. These staff members meet monthly for more in-depth training about prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. In addition, they conduct quarterly pressure ulcer prevalence surveys throughout the entire hospital to ensure our standards are being met.
As of February 2016 approximately 50% of the Saint Anne’s Hospital Skin Team has voluntarily enrolled in the Wound Treatment Associate (WTA) Program which is endorsed by the Wound, Ostomy, and Continence Nurse (WOCN®) Society. This program enables them to improve patient outcomes such as eliminating avoidable pressure ulcers and preventing wound complications/infections, by identify patients at risk and implementing prevention strategies.
Saint Anne’s Hospital is one of fifteen Massachusetts hospitals and the only in the Fall River-New Bedford area to earn the designation as a Nurses Improving Care for the Healthsystem Elders (NICHE) site. “NICHE designation demonstrates a hospital's organizational commitment and continued progress in improving quality, enhancing the patient and family experience, and supporting the hospital and other healthcare organization's efforts to serve its communities.“ This program is designed to improve the “quality of care for older adult patients by increasing awareness of geriatric issues, improving staff competence in nursing care of the elderly, and supporting the implementation of hospital geriatric protocols.”
For those patients with complex or chronic wounds a referral is made to the Center for Wound Healing at Saint Anne’s Hospital to ensure each patient receives continuity of care after they are discharged from the hospital. The collaboration involving everyone from the nursing staff, nursing assistants, nutrition, patient care transporters, physical therapy, physicians, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy forms a multidisciplinary team that identifies patients at risk for and preventing pressure ulcers.
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| 19 February 2016 |
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