Patient Falls
What are we measuring?
The rate of falls experienced by patients on the medical units and medical-surgical units.
Note: Hospitals use different ways to calculate rates. At BIDMC our fall rate is calculated based on 1000 patient days.
Why is this important?
Patient falls that occur in the hospital can result in serious injury for many patients. Efforts to prevent falls in the hospital setting involve identifying patients at risk of falling and implementing fall prevention strategies.
What does our performance tell us?
The chart below shows how BIDMC's performance compares to both a Massachusetts database of comparable institutions and the improvement goal we have established. Look for big differences in the scores in order to be sure that the difference is meaningful. Small differences may not reflect true differences in performance (i.e., they may not be statistically significant).
The 2013 goal for BIDMC is based on a review of a nationally recognized database of comparable institutions.
View our Medical Units performance over time.
Medical: Units that care for adult patients admitted to medical services, such as internal medicine, family practice, or cardiology. This may include such specialties as Bone Marrow Transplant, Cardiac, Gastrointestinal, Infectious Disease, Neurology, Oncology, Renal or Respiratory Medical units.
The 2013 goal for BIDMC is based on a review of a nationally recognized database of comparable institutions.
View our Surgical Units performance over time.
Medical-Surgical: Units that care for adult patients admitted to surgical services such as general surgery, neurosurgery or orthopedics. This may include such specialties as Bariatric, Cardiothoracic, Gynecology, Neurosurgery, Orthopedic, Plastic Surgery, Transplant, or Trauma Surgery.
BIDMC's fall rate is 3.34 falls per 1000 patient days for Medical Units compared to a Massachusetts database of hospitals with 500 or more beds average of 3.48 falls per 1000 patient days and our goal of 2.49 falls per 1000 patient days.
Our fall rate on the Medical-Surgical Units is 2.50 falls per 1000 patient days compared to the Massachusetts database of hospitals with 500 or more beds average of 3.92 falls per 1000 patient days and our goal of 2.05 falls per 1000 patient days.
What are we doing to improve our performance?
BIDMC has implemented a hospital-wide fall prevention team, revised our tool to assess patients for their risk of falling and put in place fall prevention interventions. Some of these initiatives include low beds, chair alarms, activity kits, and Global Risk Assessment and Careplan for Elders (GRACE) for early recognition of delirium. Nursing staff assess a patient's fall risk daily to account for the patient's changing condition and staff education about fall prevention is ongoing throughout the hospital. In addition, patients are visited by nursing staff at a minimum of every hour in a proactive approach to respond to patient needs, including toileting which we know can be a time for a heightened risk for fall. Through education and interventions, our fall with injury rate continues to decrease over time.
Other useful measures on nursing care:
Last updated: April 8, 2013