National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards:

By Ryan Mccann
Monday, 07 January, 2013

Preventing Falls and Harm from Falls
This is the fourth article by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (the Commission) in a series describing the National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards. Amy Winter outlines the purpose and benefits of the final standard.

Many health service organisations will already have strategies and systems in place which address these areas. The purpose of the NSQHS Standards is not to replace good systems, but to set out minimum standards for safety and quality, and provide quality assurance guidelines and improvement mechanisms to achieve them.

Each of the NSQHS Standards has been developed by the Commission in collaboration with technical experts, health service organisations and clinicians to ensure they are appropriate and relevant for clinical settings.
Falls-related injury is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in older Australians. More than 80 per cent- of injury-related hospital admissions in people aged 65 years and over are due to falls and falls-related injuries.1

Falls remain a significant issue in the safety of patients. Incident rates vary between wards and departments in hospitals. In the subacute or rehabilitation hospital setting, more than 40 per cent of patients with specific clinical problems, such as stroke, experience one or more falls during their admission.2 Approximately 30 per cent of falls in hospitals result in an injury. 3

Standard 10

Preventing Falls and Harm from Falls

The intention of Standard 10: Preventing Falls and Harm from Falls is to reduce the incidence of patient falls and to minimise harm from falls for patients in care. Standard 10 sets out a framework for health service organisations to establish and maintain systems for prevention of falls including screening and/or assessing patients for falls risk and having comprehensive falls prevention strategies in place.
Standard 10 aims to ensure that a patient’s falls risk is recognised promptly, and appropriate action is taken. While
it applies to all patients in health service organisations, it is primarily focused on those at risk of falls. Falls can occur at all ages, however the frequency and severity of injuries increases significantly with age.7
While Standard 10 applies to all health service organisations, it is recognised that some health service organisations need to ensure that patients don’t fall but may not require a significant system of falls prevention. Such health service organisations include day procedure services such as fertility clinics, endoscopy centres and cardiac catheterisation laboratories.

Standard 10 does not apply to post-fall physical and psychological harm management, but it does describe incident reporting and management.
To meet the requirements of Standard 10, health service organisations must be able to demonstrate that:

Governance structures and systems are in place to reduce falls and minimise harm from falls

Patients are screened for risk of a fall and the potential to be harmed from falls on presentation, during admission, and when clinically indicated

Prevention strategies are in place for patients at risk of falling, and

Patients, families and carers are informed of the identified risks from falls and are engaged in the development of a falls prevention plan.

For more information about Standard 10 and the Commission’s Falls Prevention program visit www.safetyandquality.gov.au/ our-work/falls-prevention

More information
More information and resources to support implementation of the NSQHS Standards are available on the Commission’s web site at www.safetyandquality.gov.au or by contacting the Commission’s Advice Centre on 1800 304 056 or accreditation@safetyandquality.gov.au.