Research Brief: Tailored Plan to Prevent Patient Falls

This week, we present the work of a team led by Patti Dykes and Blackford Middleton which has created a tool designed to prevent patient falls by translating an individual patient's fall risk assessment into a decision support intervention that communicates fall risk status, and creates a tailored plan that is accessible to care team members (including patients and family members). The team constructed the Fall Prevention Toolkit (FPTK), and conducted a randomized controlled trial to examine whether the FPTK led to a decrease in the incidence of patient falls and a decrease in the incidence of patient falls with injury. The use of their toolkit did significantly lower the incidence of falls in the intervention units and several units wished to continue using the tool after the conclusion of the study. By establishing links between nursing fall risk assessment, risk communication and tailored interventions to prevent falls, Dykes and Middleton hope to raise awareness of fall risks for patients, nurses and other providers and to lower mortality and morbidity for potential fall victims.

Access the research brief.

Example of a Fall TIPS Bed Poster
Example of a Fall TIPS Plan of Care
Example of Fall TIPS Patient Instructions

This post is part of a series to provide the public with research briefs on INQRI-funded projects across a range of interests.