Background: Falls are the second greatest cause of accidental or unintentional injury deaths and are a major public health concern on a global scale. Medical costs for falls were reported at approximately $50 billion for non-fatal injuries and $754 billion for fatal incidences. Injuries from falls, car accidents, opiod overdoses, and self-harm resulted in an estimated 2.4 million visits to emergency rooms and >700,000 hospital admissions among older persons in 2018. More than 90% of these visits were connected to unintentional falls. Falls are preventable and can be avoided through detailed safety measures such as screenings and interventions for risk factors. National efforts to mitigate expenditures and safety have been implemented and focused on preventative measures. Preventative measures to reduce falls are important for public health and safety. Objectives and goal of this project is to create an increased awareness of patients’ fall risks and appropriate use of the Johns Hopkins Fall Risk Assessment Tool (JHFRAT) for Home Health through an educational presentation. The goal was to increase awareness of fall risks, thus creating a standard for ordering PT/OT/DME to reduce falls and improving patient outcomes in the home. Essentially, identifying patients at a moderate to high fall risk would create the awareness to implement a safety and prevention measure. Evidence-Based Practice Framework: Stevens Star Model for Knowledge Transformation and Henderson’s 14 Components of Basic Nursing Care. Methods: This scholarly project was implemented with the guidance of the Stevens Star Model for Knowledge Transformation. The JHFRAT was implemented after an educational session as and intervention to prevent fall and later was evaluated for occurences of interventions to prevent falls through a retrospective chart review. The project was completed at an outpatient practice clinic located in Salt Lake City, Utah over a two-week period. Findings: The 2 x 2 Chi-Square Test was used to determine statistical significance. The 2 by 2 values included Pre-intervention and Post-intervention and no PT/OT/DME and PT/OT/DME. A p-value less than 0.05 would result in a “not significant” statistical difference. The p-value for this chi-square analyses for this data was 0.0423. The outcomes data confirmed that there was no evidence of significant difference in the occurence of PT/OT.DME orders after evaluation of data. Recommendations: An investigation on further assessments and evaluation would be necessary to illustrate if an increase of interventions would decrease falls in an outpatient setting. Expanding this project to home health agencies for both RN and providers to make assessments would be more ideal in the home setting. In addition, further recommendations for the outpatient clinic include a resource for assessing fall risk in the home setting.
