FALLS PREVENTION ANALYSIS
Falls are a major cause of disability and the leading cause of injury in Older People aged
over 75 in the UK. Older people are at a particular risk of falling when in hospital or
residential or nursing home care. Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust’s Falls Prevention
strategy aims to reduce the number of falls occurring across Trust services and to minimise
the impact which falls can have on patients. It considers research evidence for effective falls
prevention and also takes into account the learning from falls, which have occurred within
the Trust. In addition the Strategy has incorporated the guidance provided by The Patient
Safety First Campaign (2009) The How to Guide for Reducing Harm from falls.
The Strategy is not limited to Older People Services and the principles are applied to all
areas and care settings. Other patients may also present a risk of falling, for example those
patients receiving new/multiple drug treatment. The impact and risks of falling are
acknowledged to be greater for older people, and the severity of falls related complications
increases with age.
The aim of the Falls Prevention and Management Strategy is to continually review, monitor
and reduce the number of slips, trips and falls of service users including falls from height
occurring across Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust by ensuring staff are aware of risks
and implement preventative measures.
Pennine Care has a Trust wide Falls Strategy Group that meets on a bi-monthly basis to
support and monitor the implementation of the Strategy, reduce the number of slips trips and
falls involving service users and that the strategy complies with any new National guidance
and legislation
The Trust has established a Community Falls Implementation Group, to identify issues, risks
and opportunities for improvement in relation to services provided to people within
community settings, either through outpatient or domiciliary service delivery.
In addition the Trusts established inpatient Falls Implementation Group, identifies issues,
risks and opportunities in relation to services provided within PCFT inpatient facilities. The
group will agree and monitor the Trust Action Plan against falls prevention and support the
process for raising awareness about preventing and reducing the number of falls involving
service users in inpatient settings.
These groups will review investigations completed for falls classified as a Serious Untoward
Incident for shared learning and recommendations and informs the current training content
provided by the Trust on falls prevention.
The Trust has developed a risk assessment screening tool for use in all inpatient areas
which is completed as part of the admissions Procedure for all older people and for young
people and adults of working age where particular risk factors have been identified, e.g. preexisting mobility problems. The Trust recognises there may be different requirements for
different client groups and service areas, and that a particular patient group may present a
complex range of different risks. This is recognised where some falls prevention strategies
may be incompatible with suicide prevention strategies in particular the installation of grab
rails within a ward environment. Analysis of the incident data from within the Trust and
nationally, has highlighted that the risk of serious injury resulting from a fall in hospital is
much higher than the risk of suicide for patients within older people’s inpatient services.
Therefore the consideration of anti-ligature design within inpatient services may be different
within older people’s inpatients areas.
To get a more accurate picture falls data is also measured against the number of bed
occupancy days to give an accurate account on whether falls are reducing both across the
organisation and specific in patient service areas.
Please find attached previous report which shows a general falls reduction up to August
2013.
IR0038 - Bed
Occupancy vs Inpatient Falls.docx
100
80
60
Female
40
Male
20
Not Stated
0
The table above shows the gender of patients for those incidents reported under the
category for slips trips and falls (total 1071).
120
100
Apr-13
May-13
80
60
40
Jun-13
Jul-13
Aug-13
Sep-13
Oct-13
20
Nov-13
Dec-13
0
Jan-14
Feb-14
Mar-14
The table above shows the ethnicity of patients of incidents reported under the category of
slips trips and falls.
Inpatient STF Incidents – Older People and Intermediate Care
01/09/13 to 31/08/14
Directorate
Bury
Oldham
Rehabilitation & High
Support
Rochdale
Stockport
Tameside & Glossop
Community Services Bury
Community Services
Oldham
Department
Ramsbottom Ward
Ward - Cedars
Ward - Rowan
Total
Bevan Place RHSD
Beech & Hazel Ward
Bevan Place RHSD
Davenport Ward
Rosewood Ward
Saffron Ward
Hague Ward (Saxon Ward)
Summers Ward (21)
Bealey Community Hospital Bury
Grange View - Int. Care
(Tameside)
Intermediate Care Team OCHS
Grand Total
58
54
50
33
39
1
71
124
97
41
68
18
195
83
932
The above table and graph below gives a breakdown on the number of slips trips and falls
within inpatient facilities for older people and intermediate care facilities across the Trust. It is
worth noting that not all of these figures represent incidents where harm has occurred to the
patient and in the majority of cases the patient did not occur any significant injury.
Older People and Intermediate Care Inpatient
Slips, Trip & Falls Incidents
250
200
150
100
50
0
Total
Out of a total of 1071 incidents reported under the category of slips trips and falls across all
service areas for patients a total of 23 patients sustained a serious injury such as a fracture
and therefore required further investigation. On completion and closure of this investigation
the report and any recommendations are then shared at the identified falls prevention group.
Whilst the information acknowledges that as there is an increase in the patients age the
number of incidents of slips trips and falls increases the total of the number of females and
males reported within this category has no significant difference.