Preventing falls is a challenge in every nursing home. These two resources can you help assess fall risk and prevent falls at your facility.

STEADI: Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths and Injuries
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created this comprehensive toolkit to assess and address resident fall risks. It provides

• tools to make falls prevention part of your processes,
• methods to obtain background information about patients’ falls,
• case studies,
• validated tests to assess fall risk, and patient resources.

Strategies for Reducing Falls in Long-Term Care
This article, featured in the Annals of Long Term Care, advocates for performing a root-cause analysis (RCA) immediately after a fall to dig deeper than obvious reasons for the fall. It also provides case studies with step-by-step RCAs to help you determine the right tools and techniques for preventing future falls.

You can find additional RCA resources in the Qsource QAPI Companion Guide:
RCA Fishbone Diagrams
RCA Five Whys
QAPI Step 11: Get to the Root of the Problem Worksheet