The Implementation of a Fall Education Program to Enhance Functional Outcomes in an Acute Orthopedic Hospital Setting

Research Objectives: A process improvement study was performed at Lehigh Valley Hospital Highland Avenue and Lehigh Valley Hospital Tilghman to identify how a falls prevention education program may help in reducing the number of falls post TJR and reduce number of hospital readmissions.

Design: Process improvement study which collected 4 weeks of baseline data (without fall prevention and fall recovery education), and 4 weeks of data collection using the fall prevention education and fall recovery strategies implemented by PT and OT services.

Setting: A process improvement study was performed at Lehigh Valley Hospital Highland Avenue and Lehigh Valley Hospital Tilghman to identify how a falls prevention education program may help in reducing the number of falls post TJR and reduce number of hospital readmissions.

Participants: Number of Subjects: 98 participants were scores in the first phase of the stage, and there were 101 participants in the second phase of the stage
Materials and

Methods:

Interventions: The outcome was to identify if there was improvement in functional scores on MBI, AMPAC, FES on evaluation and discharge in the first phase of the study which did not include fall prevention or fall recovery education. The goal then was to identify if the scores had increased on MBI, AMPAC, and FES after fall recovery and fall prevention education was provided. Also, we were trying to evaluate if there was a decrease in hospital readmissions and ED visits in the first phase of the study versus the second phase of the study.

Main Outcome Measures: The outcome was to identify if there was improvement in functional scores on MBI, AMPAC, FES, and JFRAT.

Results: There were changes in all functional measure scores in both phases, but greater improvement after education.

Conclusions: In conclusion, there were changes in all functional measure scores in both phases. However, there were greater changes in the scores on the functional measures in the second phase where education was provided. In the first phase there were 6 ED visits and 3 readmissions, all 3 being falls. In the second phase there were 3 ED visits and 3 readmissions, 1 of which was a result of a fall. The results may indicate that patients benefitted from fall prevention/recovery education status post joint replacement.

Author(s) Disclosures: N/A