Action 5.24

Falls remain a major safety and quality risk in health service organisations. Falls prevention and harm minimisation plans based on best practice and evidence can improve patient outcomes.

Best-practice guidelines and guides for preventing falls and harm from falls in older people are available on the Falls prevention section of the website.

These resources were developed for hospital, community and aged care home settings. The resources comprise detailed guidelines, shorter guidebooks and fact sheets, and include strategies for falls prevention, managing falls risks and responding to falls.

Delirium should be considered a risk factor for falls.¹ Refer to Action 5.29 and the Delirium Clinical Care Standard for strategies to manage risks of harm related to delirium.

For many day procedure services, falls may not be a major area of patient harm. However, falls do occur in these settings, and prevention strategies will need to be in place.

Falls prevention and harm minimisation plans based on best practice and available evidence can improve patient outcomes.

Screening processes (see Action 5.10) should identify at-risk patients. Monitoring of falls reported through the incidents management system (see Action 1.11) will allow day procedure services to understand the risks and causal factors leading to falls, and allow prevention and harm minimisation strategies to be implemented.

Where the harm from falls is significant, post-falls management may occur at another health service organisation.

Delirium should be considered a risk factor for falls.¹ Refer to Action 5.29 and the Delirium Clinical Care Standard for strategies to manage risks of harm related to delirium.

Refer to Action 1.29 for strategies to ensure that the built environment supports safe and high-quality care, and reflects the patient’s clinical needs.

Examples of evidence

Select only examples currently in use:

• Policy documents that
  • are consistent with best-practice guidelines
  • include processes for post-fall management
• Data on falls from the previous 12 months
• Tools and resources to prevent falls and minimise harm from falls
• Audit results of healthcare records to determine whether patients at risk of falls are assessed and managed in line with best-practice guidelines
• Templates for falls prevention, harm minimisation and post-fall management plans
• Observation of the use of falls prevention plans
• Feedback from patients to evaluate falls prevention plans against care provided.

Falls remain a major safety and quality risk in health service organisations. Falls prevention and harm minimisation plans based on best practice and evidence can improve patient outcomes.

Best-practice guidelines and guides for preventing falls and harm from falls in older people are available on the Falls prevention section of the website.

These resources were developed for hospital, community and aged care home settings. The resources comprise detailed guidelines, shorter guidebooks and fact sheets, and include strategies for falls prevention, managing falls risks and responding to falls.

Delirium should be considered a risk factor for falls.¹ Refer to Action 5.29 and the Delirium Clinical Care Standard for strategies to manage risks of harm related to delirium.