Falls in radiology: establishing a unit-specific prevention program
- Collection:
- Health Policy and Services Research
- Series Title(s):
- Pennsylvania patient safety advisory
- Contributor(s):
- Pennsylvania. Patient Safety Authority. ECRI (Organization) Institute for Safe Medication Practices.
- Publication:
- [Harrisburg, Pa.] : Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority, c2011
- Language(s):
- English
- Format:
- Text
- Subject(s):
- Accidental Falls -- prevention & control Program Development Radiology Department, Hospital Risk Factors Risk Management -- standards Humans United States
- Genre(s):
- Technical Report
- Abstract:
- As healthcare facilities continually look to strengthen their falls prevention programs and respond to the high-risk problem of persistent patient falls, evaluation of falls events outside direct patient care, such as in radiology, may provide additional opportunities to address this organizationwide challenge. Analysis of reports to the Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority in 2009 revealed 602 falls events in radiology departments. Falls experienced by both inpatients and outpatients throughout the department were commonly associated with syncope; slips, trips, and loss of balance; and medication-related effects. Falls were from stretchers, procedure tables, or stools, including during transfers. Many of the patients had affirmed to a radiologic technologist their ability to transfer either independently or with some assistance from a wheelchair or stretcher to an examination table, or to stand for the duration of an upright examination. In these instances, technologists usually relied on verbal and nonverbal patient cues to assess the patient's ability to meet the physical demands of an impending diagnostic study. However, most of the reports described situations in which patient risks were not apparent, and radiology staff did not anticipate a fall. The adoption of standardized strategies to reduce falls risk--including ongoing education about safe patient handling practices, nurse to radiologic technologist handoff communications, and use of an assessment tool or checklist--helps to identify patient risk factors and could mitigate injurious patient falls in radiology departments.
- Copyright:
- Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further use of the material is subject to CC BY-NC-DC license. (More information)
- Illustrations:
- Illustrations
- NLM Unique ID:
- 101555802 (See catalog record)
- Permanent Link:
- http://resource.nlm.nih.gov/101555802