Assignment 1: Discussion Question You are the hospital safety officer. A unit nu
ID: 127258 • Letter: A
Question
Assignment 1: Discussion Question
You are the hospital safety officer. A unit nurse has sent an incident report to you about a patient fall. The patient, an 80-year-old man recovering from pneumonia, fell and broke his hip while getting up to go to the restroom.
As the safety officer you know that a broken hip often leads to death in the elderly. Falls are a preventable cause of patient death and can lead to a lawsuit against a hospital. You notify the hospital quality manager that according to your analysis 40 percent of the patient falls in the previous year occurred during the night shift.
There are eight adult units and two pediatric units in the hospital. Incidents of patient falls in a pediatric unit are rare. However, patient falls in the adult units are more frequent.
There are three eight-hour shifts in 24 hours. Last year, there were 80 falls. It is June, and already this calendar year there have been 44 falls.
You are concerned about the potential for a patient death, the potential for a lawsuit, and the hospital accreditation status.
Which of the core quality management tools will you use to analyze the problem?
Explain why you would use the tools you chose.
Is there other data you want as you work on this problem?
Why do you require other data?
By the due date assigned submit your response to the appropriate Discussion Area. Use the same Discussion Area to comment on your classmates' submissions and continue the discussion through the end of the module. Comment on how your classmates would address differing views.
Maximum Points
16
12
4
4
4
Grading CriteriaMaximum Points
Quality of initial posting, including fulfillment of assignment instructions16
Quality of responses to classmates12
Frequency of responses to classmates4
Reference to supporting readings and other materials4
Language and grammar4
Total:Explanation / Answer
As a Hospital Safety Officer, I use the tool of Root Cause Analysis to underlying the problems for the increased rate of falls in the adult unit. This technique helps me to analyze all the factors contribute to the patient falls and to improve the patient safety measures.
Two kind of analyses has to be initiated.
Required Data:
National BenchMarks data: It is used for comparing the fall rates. We also encourage the staff members unit wise to show the overall improvement in the hospital.
Post fall Assessment: This tool is used to prevent future falls in the patients and in the future patients. This assessment is necessary for root cause analyses as the data provides the most common causes of falls.
Stratify Risk Assessment Data: This is a fall risk assessment should be done within 24hours of patient admission. This provides data of patients who are all at risk and to plan accordingly.