Quality Improvement Initiative on Falls Prevention

Executive Summary
Student's Name
Institutional Affiliation
Executive Summary
Introduction
Falls constitute a significant public health challenge and an obstacle within all healthcare organizations, particularly acute care contexts where nearly 30 percent of all falls lead to serious injuries. Accordingly, falls are linked to heightened healthcare costs, an extended hospital stay timescale, and patient injuries or harm. Falls amongst hospitalized patients have severe implications such as head injuries, lacerations, fractures, or even mortality. Research indicates that roughly 85 percent of inpatients' adverse incidences are linked to falls (Cuttler et al., 2017). Falls within the hospital environment are preventable, and therefore this summary proposes a falls prevention project.
Quality Improvement Purpose
The proposed project's objective is to support a fall prevention project implementation within the organization. The second objective of this project is to heighten awareness and knowledge concerning fall prevention within healthcare organizations. The projected fall prevention program entails a fall care bundle as well as education that will incorporate: (a) performing fall-risk evaluation for all patients during admission, (b) patient-centered active hourly rounding, (c) evading new night sedation, (d) ensure all inpatients have the suitable footwear, and (e) re-educate the nursing staff and other healthcare professionals on fall-risk assessment as well as hourly rounding to ensure they are informed, confident, and knowledgeable within their wards (Dellinger, 2017).
The Target Population
The anticipated project is tailored for older adult inpatients aged sixty-five years and above. Research posits that falls are the leading cause of injury and death among adults and a critical public health concern. Nearly one-third of individuals aged sixty-five years and above experience falls yearly, and the figure rises to over 50 percent in persons aged 80 years and above (Frieson et al., 2018). This indicates that the prevalence of falls is higher among older individuals compared to the younger counterparts. Frieson and colleagues further reiterated that older adult patients experiencing falls are at a heightened risk of mortality and morbidity than younger patients. Such findings support the rationale for developing the fall prevention project for older adult patients in the organization.
Project Benefits
It is anticipated that a fall prevention program will effectively mitigate the incidence of falls among older adult inpatients. The plan will also reduce harm and other related complications such as fractures and adverse ramifications such as reduced life quality, disability, or even death. Lastly, the projected program will substantially mitigate healthcare costs by lowering costs related to treating and managing falls and decreasing hospital stay timescales (Rau et al., 2014). When an older patient falls, they are more likely to experience a fracture in the future, which reduces their capacity to conduct daily living activities and quality life.
Cost/Budget Justification
The financial healthcare costs that the firm faces during falls' treatment and management are very critical. Falls amongst older adu...