title: Measuring fall program outcomes.
abstract: Nurses help to ensure patient safety, which includes preventing falls and fall related injuries. The aging Veteran population, like the general population, is at risk for falls and fall related injuries whether at home, in hospitals or in long term care facilities. Nurses are leading practice innovations to systematically assess patients' risk for falls and implement population based prevention interventions. To determine the effectiveness of programs, data can be analyzed using a variety of statistical measures to determine program impacts. Thus, data analysis of fall rates by type of fall and severity of fall related injury can help facilities examine the effectiveness of their interventions and program outcomes. Examples of actual fall prevention programs and their approaches to measurement are showcased in this article.
authors.affiliation: VISN 8 Patient Safety Center of Inquiry, Tampa VA, USA. Patricia.Quigley@va.gov
authors.forename: Pat
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Quigley
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Neily
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Watson
authors.forename: Marilyn
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wright
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Strobe
mesh_terms: D000056:Accident Prevention / Q000592:standards*; D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards*; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D061214:Patient Safety / Q000592:standards*; D012307:Risk Factors; D014481:United States