At UHN, the "Prevention of Falls & Fall-related Injury" policy includes a risk assessment process, standard safety measures and a brochure for all patients with tips on how to protect themselves from falls in the hospital. Upon discharge, all patients are to be given a second patient education pamphlet that provides some fall safety tips while they are at home.
The Morse Fall Scale is a reliable and simple method of assessing a patient's likelihood of falling. The literature indicates that nurses rate the scale as "quick and easy to use" and that it takes less than three minutes to rate a patient. The Morse Fall Scale is used widely in hospitals and is a tool recommended by the RNAO Best Practice Guidelines. For patients identified to be at risk for falls (score >25), the health care team must collaborate with the patient/substitute decision maker/family to develop an individualized fall prevention plan which clearly identifies additional safety measures specific to the patient.
At UHN, we use the Morse Fall Scale tool to assess a patient's fall risk. Using the Morse Scale, patients are assessed on admission, after a fall, when their clinical condition changes as well as when the patient is about to be discharged or transferred to another setting. If the patient's score using the Morse Fall Scale is >25, the patient is put on a personalized fall prevention plan and wears a purple wristband to alert the health care team that the patient is at risk and has an individualized care plan.
The Morse Fall risk assessment tool allows us to standardize assessment of patient risk across the organization and using this instrument is an important part of making UHN a safer hospital.
Bob
