In an effort to help hospitals develop, implement, and sustain high-quality, interdisciplinary fall prevention programs, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) released Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care in 2013.1 The toolkit, based on a systematic review of the literature, was developed by a team of experts on fall prevention and by quality improvement teams at several U.S. medical centers. It comprises six sections, each created in response to an important question health care organizations must address to implement a successful fall prevention initiative:
1. Are you ready for this change?
2. How will you manage change?
3. Which fall prevention practices do you want to use?
4. How do you implement the fall prevention program in your organization?
5. How do you measure fall rates and fall prevention practices?
6. How do you sustain an effective fall prevention program?
Each section guides hospitals through the fall prevention improvement process via a series of more detailed questions. The toolkit also includes a template for a letter to introduce the program to key leadership (senior management and unit nurse managers, for example), an action plan outlining the steps needed to implement and sustain the program, and an interdisciplinary team matrix matching the tools in the toolkit with the hospital personnel who should use them-such as managers, team leaders, interdisciplinary team members, and staff nurses. The toolkit also offers links to other resources, practice insights, and additional background material. To facilitate use of the toolkit, a "roadmap" lists each section's "action steps" to take and the tools that support each step. To access the toolkit, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/fallpxtoolkit/index.html.
In September 2017, the AHRQ released its Fall Prevention in Hospitals Training Program2-the result of a three-year, AHRQ-funded pilot initiative to educate hospital leadership and implementation teams on using the strategies outlined in the 2013 toolkit. This pilot program also evaluated the impact of the toolkit on participating hospitals' fall-related outcomes.
The objectives of the training program are to:
* educate the hospital leadership and implementation team on how to use the toolkit to facilitate the change process in their hospital
* develop hospital-specific action plans for implementing a fall prevention program using the toolkit
* identify specific challenges for fall prevention in the hospital
* use and adapt the tools and resources contained in the toolkit to implement the fall prevention program
The training program takes six hours and comprises five modules, which are aligned with the six sections of the Preventing Falls in Hospitals toolkit (module 1 covers both sections 1 and 6 of the toolkit). Each module contains an instructor training guide, a slide presentation, and tools. The content is designed for in-person, interactive working meetings. A series of 12 companion webinars, which are intended to supplement the training program curriculum, focuses on specific topics related to fall prevention.
Table 1 provides an overview of the modules. To download the Fall Prevention in Hospitals Training Program materials and to access the webinars, go to http://www.ahrq.gov/professionals/systems/hospital/fallpxtraining/implguide-over.
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