Preventing falls in a 350-bed community hospital

Each fall in a hospital results in $33,000 in average costs, which is just one reason healthcare organizations seek easy tools to help staff prevent patient falls.

In one of our community hospital customers, electronic medical records indicated good falls prevention practices were happening, but leadership had no way of showing what actual practices were actually being used by staff. Without knowing what practices staff were, or were not, following, management had no way to focus training and even further improve best practices to keep patients safe.

Staff collected data on compliance with 14 different best practices to prevent falls, from ensuring call buttons are within reach to using slip-proof footwear. By using that data to target improvement efforts where they were most needed, the hospital achieved greater than 90% compliance with all 14 practices, and defect-free audits increased by 76%.

After just 6 months of using Qualaris, the hospital saw a 90% reduction in falls, and they sustained a 56% reduction over the entire fiscal year, not only avoiding huge costs but helping to keep their patients even safer.