The latest report of the National Audit of Inpatient Falls has now been published and states; “In 2023, 1,959 people sustained a femoral fracture as an inpatient; 1,609 (82%) were due to a fall and included as cases in the National Audit of Inpatient Falls.”
It also found that nearlly half of all inpatient femoral fractures (IFFs) occur on general medical wards.
The report focuses on promoting activity to ensure patients are fit to move as safely as possible to reduce hospital-acquired deconditioning, through a risk factor approach taking into account vision, medication, delirium, mobility and continence.
Learn how you can reduce inpatient falls and harm from inpatient falls at the National Falls Prevention Summit: Reducing Inpatient Falls & Harm from Inpatient Falls CPD certified conference taking place in London on Friday 6th December 2024.
Through national updates, practical case studies and learning from the National Audit of Inpatient Falls report, the conference will provide a step by step guide to implementing the multiple interventions that have been proven to reduce falls in your service. The conference will also focus on Gaining Insight from Inpatient Falls (GIIF) and linking with the Patient Safety Incident Response Framework.
“Our guidance on how to respond to inpatient falls has been developed to support the new PSIRF. This includes the language used to describe and define responses to incidents as well as the suggested methods. The PSIRF will recommend more proactive and focused investigations, with alternative methods such as “hot debriefs” and “after action reviews” being used for some incidents. In PSIRF, patient safety incident investigations (PSII) will focus on key safety concerns and be led by a suitably qualified investigator. PSIIs into falls with severe harm may be warranted locally and decisions based on the actual and potential impact of incident, the likelihood of recurrence and the potential for learning... Principles and behaviours encouraged by PSIRF include openness and transparency, engaging with patients, a just culture and continuous learning and improvement.” National Audit of Inpatient Falls RCP GUIDANCE ON GAINING INSIGHTS FROM INPATIENT FALLS
You will hear practical advice for implementing the recommendations from the National Audit of Inpatient Falls which include:
- Trusts and health boards (HBs) should review their policies and practice to ensure older hospital inpatients are enabled to be as active as possible.
- NHS England and Welsh Government should implement national drivers to ensure that all older people are screened for delirium upon hospital admission using the 4AT and reviewed for changes suggestive of a new onset of delirium for the duration of their admission.
- Trusts and health boards should ensure that there are robust governance processes in place to understand when post-fall checks fail to correctly identify a fall-related injury.
- Trusts and health boards should have processes in place to hasten time to administration of analgesia after an injurious fall, to ensure patients who sustain a femoral fracture in hospital are given analgesia within 30 minutes of falling.
- Trusts and health boards are encouraged to prepare for the audit expansion in January 2025.
Find out more: www.healthcareconferencesuk.co.uk/conferences-masterclasses/inpatient-falls-prevention
