The Clinical Audit of Bed Falls in General and Emergency Units Patients, in Golestan Hospital, September 2014 - March 2015

Abstract

Background: Bed falling is the most common unintentional cause of injury in all age patients and is a major safety problem in health facilities. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of clinical audit to prevent patient falls in general and emergency units at Ahvaz’s Golestan hospital. Methods: The study population consisted of at-risk hospitalized patients in the general and emergency units over a six-month period. In accordance with the clinical audit cycle, the weak points were found, proper interventions were implemented based on the standard guidelines for bed falling, and then another audit was performed again to assess the effectiveness of our intervention. Results: Measuring the level of interventions before and after the clinical audit showed an increase in all study variables. The falling results revealed that these interventions reduced bed falling by more than 50%. Conclusions: The clinical audit for reducing bed falling incidents in the study units led to the improved patient safety and care according to the standards of care.