Fall Prevention Program and Healthcare Cost Reduction

The research investigates whether the implementation of a fall prevention program within the orthopedic unit will have the capacity to reduce hospital admissions and healthcare costs. This topic was selected based on the fact that injurious falls have been cited in the literature as the most widespread in-hospital adverse event (Tzeng and Yin 326). Hospital falls are more prevalent in orthopedic settings due to the functional impairments, impaired cognition, mobility problems, as well as gait challenges associated with elderly patients (Bennett et al. 27). The orthopedic unit cares for the elderly (65 years or older), meaning that the age factor plays a significant role in increasing the incidence of hospital falls within the unit. Owing to the fact that hospital falls lead to adverse outcomes such as injury, functional decline, higher healthcare costs and prolonged hospital stays (Dunne, Gaboury, and Ashe 396), it is important to investigate whether the implementation of the program will reduce hospital admissions and healthcare costs.

#1 Database

• Title of Database: “Nursing Research: Reading, Using, and Creating Evidence”
• Location of Database (URL): Print; Web.
• Owner or publisher of Database: Janet Houser
• Describe (in your own words) the research database or collection of research including the purpose and the subject matter it covers: This book provides nursing students and professionals with the knowledge on how to undertake various types of research using evidence-based practice. The book contains useful information on how nurses can design their studies, develop research problems and questions, engage in credible literature searches, and disseminate findings to their targeted audience. The text also elaborates on how nurses can be able to differentiate between scholarly articles and other sources, the databases that can be used in nursing research, and the importance of evidence-based practice in nursing research.
• Explain how the database relates to your topic of interest/question: The book will help me to develop a comprehensive understanding of how to conduct a successful literature review relating to falls prevention in hospital settings. It is also possible to use the databases included in the book (e.g.,CINAHL, MEDLINE/PubMed, and PsycINFO) to search for relevant literature on the topic of hospital falls (Houser 109-111).

#2 Database

• Title of Database: Cochrane Library
• Location of Database (URL): Web.
• Owner or publisher of Database: John Wiley & Sons
• Describe (in your own words) the research database or collection of research including the purpose and the subject matter it covers: Cochrane is a subscription database that provides authoritative, appropriate, and reliable systematic reviews of primary research in a number of health-related areas such as human healthcare and health policy. Most of the nursing reviews contained in this database not only investigate the effects of interventions for prevention, treatment and rehabilitation, but also evaluate the accuracy of various diagnostic tests used within the healthcare setting (“Cochrane Library” par 2-3).
• Explain how the database relates to your topic of interest/question: The database will be instrumental in understanding the effectiveness of various fall prevention strategies that have been studied by researchers and analyzed in the systematic reviews. The reviews will also provide important background information that is needed to understand the nature of hospital falls and the relationship between hospital falls, hospital admissions, and healthcare costs.

#3 Database

• Title of Database: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
• Location of Database (URL): Web.
• Owner or publisher of Database: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services
• Describe (in your own words) the research database or collection of research including the purpose and the subject matter it covers: The AHRQ database is tasked with the responsibility of generating evidence to ensure that U.S. citizens benefit from safer and high quality care, which is also more available, equitable, and affordable to all. The evidence is contained in a multiplicity of toolkits, hospital resources, educational training programs, and directives on healthcare quality and patient safety (“Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality” par. 1-3).The database makes use of evidence-based practice to address various issues affecting contemporary hospital settings, such as quality and safety, reducing Medicaid readmissions, preventing hospital falls, preventing pressure ulcers in hospitals and improving ED operations, among others.
• Explain how the database relates to your topic of interest/question: The AHRQ database has a section on the prevention of hospital falls. The information, toolkits, and resources contained in this section are important in understanding the main issues related to hospital falls and how various prevention strategies can be implemented to prevent them. The database also provides a biography of studies related to the implementation of fall prevention practices in healthcare settings, implying that it could be used to get specific information on the preferred research topic.

#4 Database

• Title of Database: National Institutes of Health (NIH)
• Location of Database (URL): Web.
• Owner or publisher of Database: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• Describe (in your own words) the research database or collection of research including the purpose and the subject matter it covers: NIH aims to share important knowledge on the nature and behavior of living creatures and how such knowledge could be applied in real-life settings to improve health, prolong life, and lessen disease and morbidity (“National Institutes of Health” par. 1-3). It is a free database, meaning that users do not have to subscribe to benefit from the many articles and research studies designed to improve the health and wellbeing of people.
• Explain how the database relates to your topic of interest/question: The database is relevant to my topic of interest as it provides articles and resources on hospital and home-based falls, particularly among the elderly. A search of “hospital falls” from the database returns several articles and evidence-based resources that could be used to understand the topic of interest and design an effective fall prevention program to be implemented in the orthopedic unit. Additionally, the database contains various articles that illuminate the monetary/cost implications of hospital falls.

#5 Database

• Title of Database: The Joint Commission
• Location of Database (URL): Web.
• Owner or publisher of Database: The Joint Commission
• Describe (in your own words) the research database or collection of research including the purpose and the subject matter it covers: The Joint Commission is an independent, not-for-profit entity that aims to accredit, certify and maintain quality standards of health care institutions and programs operating in America with the view to continuously improving healthcare outcomes for the public. It works with other stakeholders to assess healthcare facilities and inspire them to meet high quality standards through the implementation of specific performance indicators and provision of best-value healthcare across all settings (“The Joint Commission” par. 1-3).
• Explain how the database relates to your topic of interest/question: The database is relevant to my topic of interest as it provides resources on how health organizations can ensure patient safety within the care environment. Hospital falls is one of the safety issues that affects hospitals in contemporary times, hence the need to look at how the articles and resources contained in the database address the broad topic of patient safety.

Works Cited

Ageny for Healthcare Research and Quality 2016. Web.

Bennett, Paul N., Cherene Ockerby, Judy Stinson, Karlene Willcocks and Cheyne Chalmers. “Measuring Hospital Falls Prevention Safety Climate.” Contemporary Nurse: A Journal for the Australian Nursing Profession 47.1/2 (2014): 27-35. Academic Search Premier. Web.

Cochrane Library 2016. Web.

Dunne, Tanya J., Isabelle Gaboury and Maureen C. Ashe. “Falls in Hospital Increase Length of Stay Regardless of Degree of Harm.” Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice 20.4 (2014): 396-400. Academic Search Premier. Web.

Houser, Janet. Nursing Research: Reading, Using, and Creating Evidence. 3rd ed. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2013. Print.

National Institutes of Health 2016. Web.

The Joint Commission 2016. Web.

Tzeng, Huey-Ming and Chang-Yi Yin. “Patient Engagement in Hospital Fall Prevention.” Nursing Economic$ 33.6 (2015): 326-334. Academic Search Premier. Web.