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By Sgt. Jeff Shackelford
343rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas – Like other hospitals around the nation, San Antonio Military Medical Center, located on Fort Sam Houston, is implementing new strategies to prevent patient injuries.
Members of the 6 West ward Unit Practice Council reviewed several events surrounding an increased number of patient falls and discovered that there was a need to add a visual aid to enhance programs already in place.
UPC member, Capt. Teresa A Harroun said that during their review of the events surrounding each fall, it was discovered that in several cases the staff were unaware of the patient’s fall risk classification. They were not applying the appropriate interventions as suggested by the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool, an evidence-based fall safety initiative that serves as a standard across the hospital.
According to the JHFRAT, if a patient is categorized as a moderate or high fall risk, they get a fall risk band, nonskid socks, and a falling star sign outside their door. If they are high fall risk, they should also have the bed alarm on and should remain in line of site when out of bed.
Based on this information, incident reviews, and the review of relevant literature, the UPC decided to employ the Yellow Sock Program to increase situational awareness and enhance the fall prevention policies already in place by adding visual cues in the form of yellow socks for high-risk patients.
“We had an increased number of falls and wanted to take action. Patients that are high risk require different interventions than those that are moderate or low risk,” Harroun, who is also a clinical nurse at SAMMC, said. “Before, when staff or family walked into a patient’s room, it wasn't immediately obvious what category the patient fell under and therefore, the proper interventions were not always being applied.
“The addition of yellow socks to high fall patients tells the nurse or medic the interventions that need to be in place for that particular patient,” Harroun continued.
With a solution in hand, the UPC moved out for approval.
“We began looking into the initiative in March of 2014 and completed a 30-day pilot on our ward from September to October 2014,” Harroun said. “After pre and post surveys showed improvement in fall risk awareness and falls decreased for the remainder of the year, it was presented to leadership and implemented hospital wide. We began roll out in March of 2015 and just completed it in December.”
Harroun says that she is very excited about the improved awareness of patient safety.
“We have seen an increase in staff, patient, and family awareness of fall risk and a decrease in the number of falls on our unit,” Harroun said. “Additionally, we presented the project at the tri-service nursing research conference and have been in contact with folks from other hospitals that are interested in bringing the initiative to their facilities.”
Harroun said she hopes that with increased patient safety and staff awareness regarding falls, the hospital will continue to see a decrease in the number of injuries from falls and that other hospitals will adopt similar success stories in regards to fall prevention.
| Date Taken: | 04.01.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 04.03.2016 20:09 |
| Story ID: | 194235 |
| Location: | FORT SAM HOUSTON, TEXAS, US |
| Web Views: | 641 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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