Using a quality improvement team to reduce patient falls.
Preventing falls among hospitalized patients continues to be a major concern of nurses, as evidenced by the volume of literature on this subject during the past 10 years. Yet, preventing falls, like preventing medication errors, has been a difficult and chronic issue for most nursing departments. Carolyn Corbett and Barbara Pennypacker describe how the nursing staff at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, PA, finally has experienced success by applying the systematic methods and principles of continuous quality improvement and establishing a fall prevention process.
Corbett
C
C
Robert Packer Hospital, Sayre, PA.
Pennypacker
B
B
D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D003659:Decision Making, Organizational; D005568:Forms and Records Control; D006745:Hospital Bed Capacity, 300 to 499; D006801:Humans; D008332:Management Quality Circles / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital / Q000458:organization & administration / Q000592:standards*; D010414:Pennsylvania; D010934:Planning Techniques; D016730:Program Development / Q000379:methods; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D012149:Restraint, Physical / Q000379:methods