ECRI Reduces Falls by 11% across 10+ Aging Services Campuses through Collaborative

Problem

Falls are currently the leading cause of death and injury among the older adult population - approximately 36 million falls are reported each year among older adults annually, with more than 32,000 deaths. 

One large aging services client identified falls as on the rise within their member facilities. With ECRI's help, they significantly reduced the number of falls, increasing patient safety, and saved millions of dollars. Here's how they did it. Upon review, they identified that 12 facilities had an average of 197 falls per campus annually, and that number was increasing. As an event, falls can cost up to $130,000 in claims, litigation, and medical expenses, as well as harm to patients. So the organization knew they wanted to help their member organizations make sustainable change to protect their residents, their bottom line, and their reputation. 

Solution

The client contacted ECRI for guidance on how to reduce falls. As a long-term partner, ECRI had helped the organization address different issues through consultation engagements, but knew that the goal of reducing falls would be a multi-year project. ECRI developed a 3-year Collaborative designed to help strengthen falls management programs and develop Quality Assurance and Performance Improvement (QAPI) capabilities. The collaborative structure, which included consulting, roundtables, and teaching, was designed to take a data-driven approach to identify performance improvement opportunities and then employ QAPI practices to drive purposeful change and monitor results. It created a mechanism to report and analyze data, build performance improvement projects (PIPs) specific to each collaborative Members' circumstances contributing to falls, and ensured implementation and accountability.

Results

With support from ECRI, the organization was able to make a substantial change in the number of falls in participating facilities.

In the first 18 months alone, ECRI helped the members reduce the number of falls by 11% and saved the client up to $2.7 million in falls-related claims and litigation. 

In addition, the changes implemented created a structure to reduce risks in other areas.