Conectar
Hospital falls and associated injuries are a global issue associated with harm and significant costs to individuals and society, especially for older adults. Hospital standards specify the minimum level of care required to optimise patient safety, quality and outcomes. Standards are often used during hospital accreditation. This investigation analysed the content and quality of hospital falls standards across the globe.
Hospital standards were located by searching online databases (PubMed, CINAHL, Google Scholar, MEDLINE), ChatGPT, the grey literature via internet search engines, and websites of accreditation agencies, government agencies, and other relevant organisations. We searched for standards from the 60 largest countries by population plus the 60 countries with the highest gross domestic product (n = 82 after accounting for duplicates). For inclusion, hospital standards had to mention ‘fall/s’. Data were analysed using a deductive framework synthesis and content analysis to identify emergent themes.
Forty-one standards used by at least 72 countries were identified from our search. Sixteen were excluded from detailed analysis because they did not mention falls and 3 could not be retrieved. A total of 22 standards were included in the final detailed analysis. Included standards showed wide variations in content and quality. Seven were assessed as high quality, 12 medium quality, and 3 were deemed to be of low quality. Some lacked details on hospital falls screening, assessment, prevention, and management. Consumer engagement in development, implementation, or evaluation was not mentioned in all standards. Procedures for falls data collection and reporting were seldom documented. Hospital standards infrequently referred readers to contemporary research or clinical practice guidelines.
There are variations in the quality and content of standards on hospital falls. International collaboration is recommended to increase the consistency and validity of hospital falls standards across nations, in order to optimise healthcare outcomes.
The findings of this global analysis of hospital falls standards have the potential to impact falls rates and fall-related injuries in hospital patients by providing data to inform the content, evidence base and use of hospital standards to optimise the safety and quality of care delivery. The findings inform the review, design and implementation of hospital accreditation procedures to improve patient outcomes, patient experiences, and service quality.
Hospital falls persist as a major threat to patient safety. This study aimed to develop an interprofessional reference standard to prevent, manage and report hospital falls.
A Delphi consensus methodology, informed by the Conducting and Reporting Delphi Studies guideline, was used to design the reference standard. An interprofessional expert panel (n=47) of health professionals, researchers, policymakers and consumers participated in three Delphi rounds. Following the review of clinical guidelines, an e-Delphi survey was developed and piloted to derive 60 initial items for the standard. Two iterative rounds of e-Delphi surveys were distributed via Research Electronic Data Capture and included free-text questions and 9-point Likert scales. An online consensus meeting followed, to ratify the final standard.
In the first Delphi round, there was over 80% agreement for 44/60 items to be included in the reference standard. This increased to 48/60 items in Round 2. At the final consensus meeting, 12 items still did not reach consensus for inclusion and one was added, yielding 49 items. Items that replicated text according to falls with injury/without injury were combined, resulting in 42 items in the final reference standard. Agreed items included: (1) brief screening of falls risk on hospital admission; (2) comprehensive falls assessment for inpatients who are older, frailer or have complex conditions; (3) single interventions (such as environmental adaptations and exercise); (4) multifactorial interventions; (5) education of patients, families and staff; (6) optimising local falls hospital policies, procedures and leadership capability; (7) optimising documentation and reporting; (8) improving accreditation processes; (9) workforce redesign to augment falls education. Items that did not reach agreement (n=12) pertained to alarms, bed rails, grip socks, artificial intelligence, volunteers and care bundles.
This new reference standard provides a checklist for staff, patients, managers and policymakers to reduce unwanted variations in prevention, management and reporting of hospital falls.
ANZCTR 386960
High-quality clinical practice guidelines and hospital standards on falls prevention and management now exist, yet their implementation into clinical practice is variable. Insights from consumers could help to guide the development of a process to improve the implementation of falls prevention and management, particularly in rehabilitation hospitals where fall rates are high.
A qualitative descriptive study will incorporate semistructured interviews and focus groups to explore the perspectives of hospital consumers on how hospital falls prevention evidence can best be implemented into rehabilitation practice. Thematic analysis of the data will be conducted in NVivo using a six-phase thematic coding process guided by Braun and Clarke. Evaluation and synthesis of the data will also follow the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research checklist. Consideration of the results from the interviews and focus groups will provide insights into the views of people with lived experience of hospitalisation and falls. Thematic analysis will be supported by direct quotes for each key theme and will highlight how the themes relate to the study aims and the rehabilitation context.
The study was approved by La Trobe University Human Research Ethics Committee (HEC24526). The study will be published in a peer-reviewed journal, and findings will be presented at conferences, workshops and online events.
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