ABSTRACT
Barnes-Jewish Hospital (BJH) is a large urban teaching hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. (9,438 employees, 1,845 physicians, 803 residents/interns/fellows, 1,111 staffed beds, 83,997 Emergency Room visits and 54,733 admissions in 2009). Barnes-Jewish Hospital is part of BJC HealthCare and is affiliated with Washington University School of Medicine. BJC is attempting to reduce the number of patient falls and falls with injury throughout all their hospitals. A Rapid Improvement Event (RIE) was conducted with three oncology divisions at BJH to standardize patient assessment and then to implement appropriate fall interventions. Post fall activities were also defined to help develop an understanding of contributing factors. Data transparency processes were put in place to make fall occurrences more visible to all staff. The project described in this abstract is included as part of a PhD program at Loughborough University and will be building toward a wider scope of work in the future.
