Abstract
Objective: The objective of this study was to assess the cost savings associated with implementing nursing approaches to prevent in-hospital falls.
Background: Hospital rating programs often report fall rates, and performance-based payment systems force hospitals to bear the costs of treating patients after falls. Some interventions have been demonstrated as effective for falls prevention.
Methods: Costs of falls-prevention programs, financial savings associated with in-hospital falls reduction, and achievable fall rate improvement are measured using published literature. Net costs are calculated for implementing a falls-prevention program as compared with not making improvements in patient fall rates.
Results: Falls-prevention programs can reduce the cost of treatment, but in many scenarios, the costs of falls-prevention programs were greater than potential cost savings.
Conclusions: Falls-prevention programs need to be carefully targeted to patients at greatest risk in order to achieve cost savings.
Background: Hospital rating programs often report fall rates, and performance-based payment systems force hospitals to bear the costs of treating patients after falls. Some interventions have been demonstrated as effective for falls prevention.
Methods: Costs of falls-prevention programs, financial savings associated with in-hospital falls reduction, and achievable fall rate improvement are measured using published literature. Net costs are calculated for implementing a falls-prevention program as compared with not making improvements in patient fall rates.
Results: Falls-prevention programs can reduce the cost of treatment, but in many scenarios, the costs of falls-prevention programs were greater than potential cost savings.
Conclusions: Falls-prevention programs need to be carefully targeted to patients at greatest risk in order to achieve cost savings.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 50-57 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Journal of Nursing Administration |
Volume | 45 |
Issue number | 1 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2015 |