Effectiveness of Built-in Bathroom Facilities in Reducing Inpatient Falls from an Acute Care Setting
Keywords:
Bathroom Facilities, Inpatient Falls, Acute CareAbstract
Background: Built-in bathroom facilities located within patients’ room were identified as a strategy to reduce inpatient falls. However, the relationship between having built-in bathrooms and falls incidence has not been examined. Purpose: To explore whether built-in bathrooms within an acute multi-bedded hospital room setting will reduce falls incidence among adult patients as compared
to those sharing a separate bathroom situated outside their rooms.Method: A pre-and-post study involving a single group comparison of three-time phases was conducted. Results: Presence of built-in bathrooms in multi-bedded hospital room settings was not statistically significant in reducing falls, p>0.05. Conclusions: Built-in bathrooms had shortened the distance from the bathroom to patients’ bed, but it did not reduce falls incidence significantly. Other fall preventive measures such as reminding patients to seek assistance before ambulating and installation of handrails linking from the bed to the built-in bathrooms may be required in order to reduce fall incidence.
References
Oliver D, Healey F, Haines TP. “Preventing falls and fall-related injuries in Hospitals.” Clin Geriatr Med 26(2010): 645-692.
Bouldin EL, Andresen EM, Dunton NE, Simon M, Waters TM, et al. “Falls among adult patients hospitalized in the United States: Prevalence and trends.” J Patient Saf 9(2013): 13-17.
Koh SS, Manias E, Hutchinson AM, Johnston L. “Fall incidence and fall prevention practices at acute care hospitals in Singapore: A retrospective audit.” J Eval Clin Pract 13(2007): 722-727.
Boyd R, Stevens JA. “Falls and fear of falling: burden, beliefs and behaviours.” Age Ageing 38(2009): 423-428.
Hartholt KA, van Beeck EF, Polinder S, van der Velde N, van Lieshout EM, et al. “Societal consequences of falls in the old e0r population: Injuries, healthcare costs, and long-term reduced quality of life.” J Trauma 71(2011): 748-753.
Morello RT, Barker AL, Watts JJ, Haines T, Zavarsek SS, et al. “The extra resource burden of in-hospital falls: a cost of falls study.” Med J Aust 203(2015): 367.
Hitcho EB, Krauss MJ, Birge S, Claiborne Dunagan W, Fischer I, et al. “Characteristics and circumstances of falls in a hospital setting: A prospective analysis.” J Gen Intern Med 19(2004): 732-739.
Ehrlander W, Ali F, Chretien KC. “Multioccupancy hospital rooms: Veterans’ experiences and preferences.” J Hosp Med 4(2009): E22-E27.
http://www.who.int/csr/resources/publications/drugresist/ en/whocdscsreph200212.pdf?ua=1
h t t p s : / / w w w. w i r e d - g o v. n e t / w g / w g - n e w s - 1. n s f / 0 / CC56F0C3EFE014CF80257AEC0035E6E6?OpenDocument
Chang VC, Do MT. “Risk Factors for Falls Among Seniors: Implications of Gender.” American Journal of Epidemiology 181(2015): 521-531. DOI: 10.47755/J Nur Patient Saf.2020.1.004
Gale CR, Cooper C, Aihie Sayer A. “Prevalence and risk factors for falls in older men and women: The english longitudinal study of ageing.” Age Ageing 45(2016): 789-794.
Staggs VS, Mion LC, Shorr RI. “Consistent differences in medical unit fall rates: implications for research and practice.” J Am Geriatr Soc 63(2015): 983-987.
Stalpers D, de Brouwer BJ, Kaljouw MJ, Schuurmans MJ. “Associations between characteristics of the nurse work environment and five nurse-sensitive patient outcomes in hospitals: A systematic review of literature.” Int J Nurs Stud 52(2015): 817-835.
English KL, Paddon-Jones D. “Protecting muscle mass and function in older adults during bed rest.” Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care 13(2010): 34-39.
http://www.healthdesign.org/chd/research/impacthealthcare-environmental-design-patient-falls.pdf
Pynoos J, Steinman BA, Nguyen AQD. “Environmental assessment and modification as fall-prevention strategies for older adults.” Clinics in Geriatric Medicine 26(2010): 633-644.
Singh I, Okeke J, Edwards C. “Outcome of in-patient falls in hospitals with 100% single rooms and multi-bedded wards.” Age Ageing 44(2015): 1032-1035.
Tzeng HM, Yin CY. “Nurses’ solutions to prevent inpatient falls in hospital patient rooms.” Nurs Econ 26(2008): 179-187.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK20491/
Lim ML, Ang SGM, Teo KY, Wee YHC, Yee SP, et al. Patients’ experience after a fall and their perceptions of fall prevention: A Qualitative Study. J Nurs Care Qual 33(2018): 46-52.
Wagner AK, Soumerai SB, Zhang F, Ross-Degnan D. “Segmented regression analysis of interrupted time series studies in medication use research.” J Clin Pharm Ther 27(2002): 299-309
