News and Updates for todays Falls summit

The National Audit of Inpatient Falls: moving to continuous audit and improvement
Professor Cameron Swift, Emeritus Professor, Consultant Physician & Specialist Committee Member, Falls Prevention Quality Standard, NICE
The presentation will briefly cover the following:

1. A recap review of the phenomenon of falls in older people
2. The evidence underpinning its prevention in high risk groups, of whom inpatients constitute the highest
3. Interventions that have been shown to be either effective or ineffective
4. The development and content of National Guidance on this topic
5. The concept and opportunity of national and trust-level audit of inpatient fall prevention
6. Findings of the 2017 RCP National Audit of Inpatient Falls
7. Forward recommendations for progress, implementation and the need for further research.

A multifaceted approach to reducing inpatient falls
Kerry O’Neill, Falls Prevention Nurse Specialist, Medway NHS Foundation Trust
Pre Event Abstract
A multifaceted approach to reducing inpatient falls
The national in-patient audit report for inpatient falls (2015, p4) highlighted that confronting the problem of inpatient falls is challenging.
“There are no single or easily defined interventions which, when done on their own, are shown to reduce falls. However, research has shown that multiple interventions performed by the multidisciplinary team and tailored to the individual patient can reduce falls by 20–30%. These interventions are particularly important for patients with dementia or delirium, who are at high risk of falls in hospitals.”
Medway NHS Foundation Trust has continued to introduce multi-factorial falls prevention improvement strategies and, with the encouragement of the locally led self-directed safety improvement approach promoted by the Sign up to Safety campaign, the falls CRASH bundle was devised. This falls bundle identifies 5 key elements to preventing falls and provides a measurement tool to audit practice, impact and identify staff learning needs.
This Bundle provides a foundation to disseminate learning from root cause analysis from falls with harm. To improve learning, Medway NHS Foundation Trust is also now using “SWARMing” to stimulate multi-disciplinary, significant dedicated discussion on care and service delivery, root causes   and possible solutions following falls with harm. “Swarming”, according to Li et al (2015), offers more than a simple root cause analysis or an “error analysis exercise” but has the potential to influence work place culture, and endorse the ability to implement practices that enhance patient safety. Medway NHS Foundation Trust has also introduced a falls investigation Toolkit for falls with moderate harm and above to improve initial intelligence and avoid the common description of the event as “ found on floor”.
Full PowerPoint Presentation

Using individual multidisciplinary assessment and assessment tools
Dr Theodora Giokarini-Royal, Consultant Orthogeriatrician, Surrey and Sussex NHS Foundation Trust
Dr Giokarini-Royal has been a consultant at East Surrey hospital since 2012. She is the clinical lead in orthogeriatrics in a busy department, where patients with fractured neck of femur are managed in a joined care module with the orthopaedic teams. With collaboration with the Virginia Mason Institute (termed SASH+) the fracture unit has been undergoing a continuous process of quality improvement. Dr Giokarini-Royal and her team were finalists in the 2017 Kent Surrey Sussex Leadership and Innovation Awards for their work on improvement in the formal assessment for delirium and pain, as well as sepsis reduction in this patient cohort.
​Full PowerPoint Presentation

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