Nursing

In this assignment, you will propose a quality improvement initiative from your place of employment that could easily be implemented if approved. Assume you are presenting this program to the board for approval of funding. Write an executive summary (750-1,000 words) to present to the board, from which the board will make its decision to fund your program or project. Include the following:

The purpose of the quality improvement initiative.
The target population or audience.
The benefits of the quality improvement initiative.
The interprofessional collaboration that would be required to implement the quality improvement initiative.
The cost or budget justification.
The basis upon which the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated.
Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center. An abstract is not required.

This assignment uses a rubric. Please review the rubric prior to beginning the assignment to become familiar with the expectations for successful completion.

You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite.

ANSWER

A Fall Prevention Project to Decrease the Rate of Inpatient Falls

Introduction

A quality improvement initiative that can be of great help is a fall prevention project which will help to decrease the rate of inpatient falls. Falls are one of the major public health programs and a major obstinate challenge within all the health care settings. This is mostly an issue with adult care settings, where the rate of falls causes up to 30% of serious injuries. As a result of falls, there are high health care costs, prolonged stay at the hospital, and harm to the patients. Examples of likely harms to the patients include head injuries, fractures, and even death. According to (Cuttler et al., 2017), approximately 85% of adverse events amongst inpatients are attributed to falls. Falls in a hospital setting are preventable and hence need a quality improvement initiative to ensure that there is a decrease in the rate of such incidents to provide quality health care for all patients at the facility.

The Purpose of the Quality Improvement

The project seeks to ensure a successful implementation of a fall prevention project for the health facility. The project also aims to ensure increased awareness amongst the patients and any other relevant stakeholders on the need for a fall prevention project and its role in providing sustainable solutions to the challenges faced by the health care facility. The fall prevention program will entail the following:

1. Having a fall risk assessment on all patients during their admission
2. Ensuring routine check-ups of inpatients, more so during the night hours
3. Ensuring that quality infrastructure is in place for all patients as a way of helping to prevent their falls
4. Having the appropriate footwear for all inpatients to facilitate their movement around the hospital
5. Avoiding night sedation
6. Undertaking a comprehensive training and development program for nurses and all health care workers at the facility to make them knowledgeable in dealing with fall risks for the inpatients as a way of quality improvement initiative

The Target Population

 The project targets adult inpatients who are over the age of 65. This is since they are the most likely to be involved in falling incidence, where falling lead to their injuries or even death when admitted to the hospital facility. According to Frieson et al. (2018), about a third of individuals aged above 65 years’ experience a fall annually, where the number increases to more than 50 % in the people over the age of 80. This shows the need to target this population to help in reducing the harm caused by the falls. It is also manifest that older adults are at a higher risk of morbidity and mortality than younger patients. This hence supports the rationale of the fall prevention initiative, with the older adults being the main target.

The Benefits of the Project

The main aim of the intuitive will be to help the health care institution reduce the incidences of falls amongst inpatients and ultimately minimize the adverse consequence of such falls. This will help improve the quality of life among the patients, ensure that they recover quicker, and minimize any likelihood of additional harm while at the hospital. The project is also highly likely to lower costs of healthcare associated with treatment and management of falls, ultimately decreasing the length of hospital stay.

The Cost/Budget Justification

Falls among older adults enforce a key economic burden on the health care system. According to a study undertaken in a hospital in Florida, the hospital was able to save up to $116,880.46 per month after implementing a fall prevention strategy (Haddad et al., 2019). It is estimated that approximately $20,000 will be used to implement the program at the facility, meaning that such a project has the potential of saving a huge amount to the firm. Based on the costs incurred due to falls, and the amount required to implement the initiative, it is manifest that the health facility will save more money and eventually help reduce the costs the facility has been incurring.

Project Evaluation

To have a thorough analysis of the project, there will be a need to incorporate various healthcare facility stakeholders. The interprofessional disciplinary team will comprise nurses, physicians, other workers within the facility, and any vital stakeholder. The team will be mandated to implement the program and monitor the progress and success of the program. The team will need to collect data regarding the project’s efficacy before and after implementing the initiative. This will help understand the efficiency and effectiveness of the progress and assess areas that could be improved to make it a success. From the collection of data, it will be easy to analyze the fall rate before and after the implementation of the project.

Summary

A fall prevention program is one of the quality improvement initiatives that a health care facility can implement. This is since it is manifest that falls are associated with an increase in health care costs, can lead to more harm to the inpatients, and could ultimately lead to prolonged stay at a hospital facility. Hence, the project will target the elderly who are above the age of 65 years to reduce the cases of hospital falls and ensure that they have more quality health care when admitted to the facility. The efficiency of the project will be evaluated by comparing the fall rate before the project implementation and after the execution.

References

Cuttler, S. J., Barr-Walker, J., & Cuttler, L. (2017). Reducing medical-surgical inpatient falls and injuries with videos, icons, and alarms. BMJ open quality, 6(2), e000119.

Frieson, C. W., Tan, M. P., Ory, M. G., & Smith, M. L. (2018). Editorial: Evidence-Based Practices to Reduce Falls and Fall-Related Injuries Among Older Adults. Frontiers in public health, 6, 222.

Haddad, Y. K., Bergen, G., & Florence, C. S. (2019). Estimating the Economic Burden Related to Older Adult Falls by State. Journal of public health management and practice: JPHMP, 25(2), E17–E24.