Narrative for Saint Anne's Hospital
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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. We have an active falls task force and have implemented hourly purposeful rounding on the nursing units. During the rounds patients are offered the opportunity to walk/walk to the bathroom with assistance. An environmental assessment was performed and opportunities were identified to improve the safety of the environment. This included the need to lower all the grab bars on the bathroom walls for patient ease. Bed alarms are utilized on all patients identified as a fall risk to alert the nursing staff the patient is trying to get out of bed, or has gotten out of bed unassisted. In response to a vendor fair exploring fall prevention devices, an early warning seatbelt has been implemented for use on patients who sit in a chair, and are a fall risk. The seatbelt alerts nursing staff that the patient is trying to get out of the chair unassisted. The organization continues to monitor falls as they happen and identify opportunities to improve safety in the environment. PRESSURE ULCER PREVALENCE Throughout the Caritas Christi health care system, our healthcare teams are dedicated to providing excellent care to our patients. Saint Anne’s Hospital has a skin care team in place with a nursing liaison on each floor to help maintain our level of excellence. Each month the Wound Care nurse and the skin team rounds throughout the entire hospital to ensure our standards are being met: a pressure ulcer risk assessment scale is filled out daily on all of our patients, the patient’s skin integrity is being examined by each shift of nurses and certified nursing assistants. When patients are identified as high risk, we immediately utilize tools such as turning schedules, and protective barriers to help preserve the patient’s skin integrity. If a department has a patient who has developed an ulcer, continuous rounding is done by the wound care nurse to ensure the staff is aware of measures to be taken, and that preventive measures continue to be implemented. We will continue to strive for a 0% rate of pressure ulcer development at Saint Anne’s. |
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