Abstract
Falls are common in nursing homes (NHs) and may result in serious injury to the resident
as well as legal and regulatory liability for the NH. Some of these falls and injuries
might be avoided if attending physicians were involved in risk reduction. I developed
a communication tool to solicit from attending physicians specific risks for patients
most likely to experience a fall and injury, and to consider strategies to reduce
those risks. The communication tool addresses medications, osteopenia, vitamin D deficiency,
vision, hearing, gait/balance/peripheral sensation, injury mitigation, altered mental
status, restraints, and philosophy of treatment. An important component of implementation
is to ensure full participation by the attending physician. Suggestions for implementation
and evaluation are discussed, as well as potential application to clinical problems
other than falls.
Keywords
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Article info
Footnotes
Feasible new, practical products or approaches intended to improve outcomes or processes in post-acute or long-term care
The author declares no conflicts of interest.
Identification
Copyright
© 2018 AMDA - The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine.
