Preventing falls a tricky situation in LTC: Lester
West Lake employs various prevention strategies
Friday May 9, 2008 -- Natalie Miller
When former US president Ronald Reagan had full-time nursing support and his wife, Nancy, at his side, he still managed to fall and break a hip.

Falls are sometimes inevitable for seniors, particularly those who are frail. West Lake Terrace Administrator and Director of Care Mary Lynn Lester shares the anecdote and says falls and preventing them remain a challenge in long-term care.

Over the years, the West Lake long-term care home has tried various initiatives to help alert staff to potential fall risks. For instance, the home has used call bells attached to residents' nightclothes to alert staff if seniors get out of bed. The administrator notes there are other electronic gadgets on the market now as well.

What has proven to be one of the more successful preventative tools are the home's beds. Lester says the beds have the capability to be lowered to about six inches from the floor. This way, if a resident rises in the night, he or she is more likely to roll out of bed instead of fall. The long-term care home is also testing monitoring equipment that attaches to the bed.

West Lake is currently working in conjunction with its physiotherapist on a falls prevention program which targets people who are at a high risk for falls.

“Our mandate is to have zero falls,” says Lester.

But it's not an easy task, she says.

“In days gone by you used to put (residents) into restraints” as a method to prevent falls, she says. However, the use of restraints are frowned upon nowadays. She says this leaves staff members in a tricky situation. Families don't want their loved ones restrained but don't want them to suffer from a fall either. With a ratio of one staff member for 12 residents, “it's a very frustrating area of long-term care.”

An 87-year-old resident of an Ontario long-term care home died recently. Police and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care are investigating the death.

Lester says stories like these are difficult.

“It get the workers down,” she says. It leaves the public with the perception that long-term care workers are “being neglectful,” she says.

In part in response to the recent death, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and the Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario (RNAO) have launched the 'National Collaborative on Falls in Long-Term Care', an initiative involving teams of health professionals from across the country focused on preventing seniors who reside in long-term care from falling.

The group will be focusing on strategies such as: assessing a resident’s risk for falling when they first enter a long-term care facility; teaching staff, residents and families how to prevent falls; having residents do balance and strength training; lowering the height of beds; and using bed exit alarms when patients are at a high risk of falling, a RNAO press release states.

According to Statistics Canada, falls account for two-thirds of injuries which limit mobility and activities for Canadians. Nearly 14,000 Canadians die as the result of falls every year.

To read more about what OMNI is doing in the area of fall prevention, check out this feature.

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