Fall Prevention (FP) in an Inpatient Psychiatric Unit. Systematic Enhancement Effort to Address High Fall Rate.

Introduction

There was a raising trend of fall in Department of Psychiatry, TPH (32 in 2019 to 37 in 2020).

Prevalence of fall is higher in psychiatric inpatient settings than general settings due to psychopharmacological treatment and impaired cognitive function.

Fall could cause serious adverse physical and psychological outcomes (e.g. fractures, depressive symptoms). Based on the 4M1E principle (Man, Mechanism, Material, Method, Environment), a 2-year systemic fall prevention (FP) project was implemented since 2021 to tackle the raising trend of fall incidents.

Objective

Minimize fall incidents and related injuries.

Evaluation

Pre- and post- comparison of fall incident rate and fall-related fracture cases.

Actions Taken

Man