Fall Risk Assessment and Management Tool

1. INTRODUCTION

Falls and injuries associated to fall are a common and severe problem for older people. About one third of the older population experiences at least one fall each year (WHO 2007). Falling causes distress, pain, injury, loss of confidence, loss of independence and mortality. It not only causes harm to individual but also affects the family members and caretaker of people who fall. Every year, approximately 30% of Australians over 65 years old fall, with 10% of these falls leading to injury (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare 2008). Fall also contribute on the cost of healthcare services.

It has been estimated that in Australia, the total estimated health cost attributable to falls-related injury will increase almost threefold from A$498.2 million per year in 2001 to A$1375 million per year in 2051. And in hospitals, 886 000 additional bed days per year, or the equivalent of 2500 additional beds, will be permanently allocated to treating falls-related injuries (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing 2003). Therefore falling has an impact not only in the quality of life and health of an individual who fall but also healthcare costs.

In order to reduce and manage the fall risk in older age people, a practice of risk assessment, fall risk prevention plan along with risk management need to be performed in every residential care and health care settings.

Jacardranda Retirement Valley (JRV) has been facing the problem of increasing incidents of falls during the last 6 months. Currently, they are lacking proper risk assessment tools for fall. Therefore, developing and designing appropriate risk assessment and implementing targeted multifactorial falls prevention strategies that are resourced adequately, monitored and reviewed regularly will help to minimize the problems of JRV in the first hand.

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1.1 PURPOSE AND SCOPE

 The purpose of designing a system of fall risk assessment and management tool is to provide an overview of how new strategies on fall prevention care processes could be implemented at the age care unit.

The scope of designing the fall risk management system is in minimizing the fall percentage of resident of JRV care center, which ultimately add values in quality service of JVR and resident security and safety.

1.2 PROJECT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

A form of fall risk assessment for people with age 65 years and over was designed to determine the risk associated with fall in the residential care settings. A large number of articles related to fall risk of old age people was reviewed and base on those research, we determined possible factors associated with fall in elderly people. The Risk factors is divided into intrinsic risk factors (factors that relates to a person’s behavior or condition) and extrinsic factors (factors relates with their environment or their interaction with the environment). The intrinsic risk factors have been focus for our assessment because the assessment is required to be performed at the time of admission to the residential care.

 The form was developed using Microsoft Access in which fall risk management form was implemented for risk assessment and management plan as per the risk was also established. A systematic process from brainstorming, to process mapping and data modeling was performed till the formation of management strategies.

1.4 GLOSSARY

2. PROCESS MAPPING AND DATA MODELLING

2.1. PROCESS MAPPING

With the advance in technology, we can see growing interest in the development and effective integration of efficient and useable health information management system. However, it is essential that researchers, designers and implementers have a clear understanding of the current care processes in place before they start to develop or implement new electronic systems within health care settings. A critical first step to designing such systems is the development of accurate models depicting existing care pathways and clinical processes and also to introduce new process into the system. Here, use the concept of process mapping to develop a system of assessing fall risk in age care settings and than develop and implement fall risk management plan for the safety of the resident of JRV.

Process mapping is a useful tool to understand existing care pathways and clinical processes. In turn, this can be used in an attempt to anticipate the potential effects of complex technological interventions on work processes.

The flowchart starts with resident filling the registration form. After registration, they will perform self-assessment and then if the risk is high in self-assessment, they will also perform clinical fall risk assessment by the clinicians in the age care clinic. In either of the case clinical risk assessment is performed for the validation and accuracy of the assessment as there are only 320 residents in the age care and these small number of assessment will only take minimum number of time. The risk factors for assessment are history of fall, medication, vision, balance/ gait, mental status, continence, predisposed disease and systolic blood pressure. If there is no risk of fall then they will be in Independent living units (ILU) or high care accommodation area. If there is high risk or any risk then universal fall risk precaution along with tailored responses based on each risk factor identified. Prepare an incident report incorporating fall assessment, changes after implementing prevention plan and enter it into incident report database. However, if risk factors are not identified, implement fall precautions so as not to create a fall risk in future.

Figure-1 shows the complete process of Fall Risk Management in Jacaranda Retirement valley (JRV) from risk assessment to risk identification, analysis and implementation of management plan with proper documentation in system design document.

Resident Registration

Self-Assess of Fall Risk Factors

• History of fall
• Vision status
• Gait/Balance
• Weakness
• Medications
• Predisposing diseases

Clinical Assess of Fall Risk Factors

• History of fall
• Mental status
• Vision status
• Gait/Balance
• Systolic blood pressure
• Medications
• Predisposing diseases

Annual Review

Annual Review

Risk of Fall

NO

ILU/HDU

YES

Fall Risk Management

Incident Report

Incident Database

Figure 1: PROCESS MAPPING DIAGRAM

2.2 DATA MODELING

Self-Fall Risk Assessment

UR No

History of fall_Q1

Vision_Q2

Continence_Q3

Weakness_Q4

Medication_Q5

Medication_Q6

Disorder_Q7

Predisposed disease_Q8

Mental_Q9

Total Score

Resident Information

UR_No

Family Name

Given_Name

DOB

Sex

Clinical Fall Risk Assessment

UR No

Past Hhistory_Q1

Mental status_Q2

Vision_Q3

Toiletting_Q4

Systolic Pressure_Q5

Medication_Q6

Medication_Q7

Predisposed disease_Q8

Balance_Q9

Total Score

Clinician name

 Clinician Designation

Management plan

 Figure: ER DIAGRAM

There are three number of table formed in the Microsoft Access for the development of self-risk assessment and clinical assessment form. Each table have come UR No as a primary key, which will link one another in the database formation. Table 1 is Resident Information as an entry and its attributes are UR No, given name, family name, Date of Birth (DOB) and sex of the resident. Table 2 is self-risk assessment table, in which as all the attributes used to create self-assessment form. A total of 10 attributes are used to create this form. Attributes like UR No, History of fall_Q1, Vision_Q2, Continence_Q3, Weakness_Q, Medication_Q5, Medication_Q6, Disorder_Q7, Predisposed disease_Q8, Total Score are used. Likewise clinical assessment is also performed to create validation in the risk assessment of the resident plus further assessment in the clinical settings. The attributes used in clinical assessment are as follows: UR No, Past Hhistory_Q1, Mental status_Q2, Vision_Q3, Toiletting_Q4, Systolic Pressure_Q5, Medication_Q6, Medication_Q7, Predisposed disease_Q8, Balance_Q9, Total Score, Clinician name, Clinician Designation.

Risks factors used in the Fall Risk Assessment Form for JRV.

Fall History: A past history of falls is linked with increased risk. An old person who is prone to fall more than 3 times in his past history is more likely to fall in future.

Age: There is positive correlation with fall and increasing age. Hence, taking age of the resident is very most important.

Medicines: ‘benzodiazepine use in older people is associated with an increase of as much as 44% in the risk of hip fracture and night falls’ (Ray, Thapa & Gideon 2000). There is a significant increased risk of falling with use of medications such as psychotropic, class 1a anti-arrhythmic medications, digoxin, diuretics, and sedatives.

Predisposing disease: According to a research article, circulatory disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, depression and arthritis are each associated with an increased risk of 32% (Lawlor 2003). The prevalence of falling increases with rising chronic disease burden. Old people with mental illness and incontinence also has fall risk.

Balance and gait: With the increase in age after 30, there will be gradual decline in the strength and muscle power, which will decrease our physical functioning. Also some abnormalities or deficit in gait and balance is also associated with fall risk.

Mental status: Mental status is clearly associated with increased risk. As per FROP-Com, 80% increased risk of falling if cognitive impaired.

Continence: It is the ability of a person to control oneself. According to FROP-Com, 50% increased risk of falling if incontinence therefore referral to occupational therapist is required.

Visual impairments: Older people will have low vision with age. An increase in eye disorder, degeneration occurs like glaucoma and macular degeneration, which contribute to risk of falls. Some old people are legally blind and some need glasses for clear vision. (Euro.who.int 2019)

Foot problems: bunions, toe deformities, ulcers, deformed nails and general pain in walking increase balance difficulties and risk of falls. Footwear is also important. (Euro.who.int 2019)

Resident who will score more than 10 points will be marked as at high risk and based on the risk factory he/she will be provided with the appropriate management plans for individual or we can also create a fall risk management plan for JRV as a whole.

 After performing clinical assessment, management plan is to be performed.

2.3 Screen Capture of electronic Forms

Self-Fall Risk Assessment Form

Clinical Fall Risk Assessment

3 HUMAN-MACHINE INTERFACES

3.1 INPUTS

3.2 OUTPUTS

Self-Risk Assessment

Clinical Risk Assessment

4 DATA ELEMENTS AND VALIDATION RULES

Bibliography

• DoHA (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing) 2003, ‘ Projected Costs of Fall Related Injury to Older Persons Due to Demographic Change in Australia’, Department of Health and Ageing, Australian Government, Canberra.
• Euro.who.int. 2004, What are he main risk factor for falls amongst older people and what are the most effective interventions to prevent these falls?’, viewed 13 May 2019, http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/74700/E82552.pdf
• Ray W., Thapa P. & Gideon, P. 2000, ‘Benzodiazepines and the Risk of Falls in Nursing Home Residents’, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol. 48, no.6, pp.682-685.
• World Health Organization 2007, WHO global report on falls prevention in older age Geneva, Switzerland, World Health Organization, Switzerland.
• Worldcat.org. 2019, A picture of osteoarthritis in Australia (Book, 2008) [WorldCat.org]. [online] viewed 13 May 2019, https://www.worldcat.org/title/picture-of-osteoarthritis-in-australia/oclc/244630242.