Implementing a Fall Risk Protocol in an Ambulatory Surgery Setting

Abstract

Purpose: This quality improvement (QI) project aimed to examine the influence of a fall risk protocol implementation in an Ambulatory Surgery Center (ASC) on staff nurses' compliance with fall prevention practices and knowledge of falls.

Design: This QI project implemented a pretest and post-test design. The Johns Hopkins Evidence-based Practice model guided this project.

Methods: This QI project implemented a fall risk protocol in an ASC in Northern California. The protocol included screening for fall risk based on the Morse Fall Scale and measured use of fall prevention practices on a 5-point frequency Likert scale. The project was introduced to all staff at the ASC in an in-person staff meeting. The nurses who worked in both the preoperative and postoperative units were invited to attend an educational session that included a PowerPoint presentation. To examine the protocol, 21 nurses participated in the presurvey and 22 nurses participated in the postsurvey (N = 43). The survey included the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's fall knowledge test and fall prevention practices.

Findings: The compliance with fall prevention practices showed statistically significant improvement after intervention (P < .001). Postsurvey participants had higher practice scores (95.73/105) compared to the presurvey (81.24/105). RN compliance with the fall risk protocol screening revealed strong consistency, where RNs screened 97% of patients compared to a baseline of zero screening before the protocol. Approximately 25% of patients scored high-risk every week, and 97.75% of these patients received targeted interventions. However, there were minimal changes observed in fall knowledge scores.

Conclusions: The results demonstrated a high rate of staff nurse compliance with screening and implementation of fall prevention practices as part of the fall risk protocol. Nurses' knowledge about falls slightly improved but did not meet statistical significance. An increase in fall prevention practices demonstrated that the protocol closed the gap between knowledge and practice, helping the nurses identify and communicate patient fall risk status using evidence-based strategies.

Keywords: ambulatory surgery center falls; fall prevention; fall risk protocols; fall screening.