Inpatient Falls
As of Monday 23rd January, a new tool from the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), that enables ward staff to quickly assess a patient’s eyesight in order to help prevent inpatient falls, has being made available to trusts and local health boards in England and Wales.
Look out! Bedside vision check for falls prevention is an innovatively designed guide which aims to support busy clinical staff in assessing visual impairment in older people. The guide uses a mixture of questions and visual aids to help doctors, nurses and therapists check eyesight at the patient’s bedside. The results will give an indication of the extent of any visual problems that the patient may have.
Falls in hospital are the most commonly reported patient safety incidents, with more than 600 a day happening in acute hospitals and mental health trusts in England and Wales every year. Although there is no single cause of falls, poor vision in older people is often related to increased risk.
This simple change in the falls risk assessment procedure could have a substantial effect on the number of falls experienced by inpatients each day. If the patients are correctly identified as being “at risk” of a fall more quickly than they currently are, the correct measures can be put in place to monitor the patients when they are attempting to become mobile whilst out of the carers sight.
Using the Look out! Bedside vision check for falls prevention guide, in conjunction with a falls prevention system such as the SensorCare dual system, could greatly reduce the number of falls, & inpatient fractures experienced.
For further information on our falls prevention systems, contact us today on 0845 863 9570, or fill out our contact form. 