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BioMed Central, BMC Health Services Research, 1(20), 2020

DOI: 10.1186/s12913-020-05168-8

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Current state of fall prevention and management policies and procedures in Canadian spinal cord injury rehabilitation

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Abstract

Abstract Background Preventing patient falls is a priority in tertiary spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation. Falls can result in patient or staff injury, delayed rehabilitation, and hospital liability. A comprehensive overview of fall prevention/management policies and procedures in Canadian SCI rehabilitation is currently lacking. We describe and compare the fall prevention/management policies and procedures implemented in Canadian tertiary hospitals that provide SCI rehabilitation. Methods Fall prevention/management documents implemented in SCI rehabilitation at six Canadian tertiary rehabilitation hospitals across five provinces were analyzed using a document analysis. Analysis involved multiple readings of the documents followed by a content and thematic document analysis. Results Fall prevention/management policies and procedures in SCI rehabilitation were organized into three main categories: 1) pre-fall policies and procedures; 2) post-fall policies and procedures; and, 3) communication between and amongst staff, patients, and families. Pre-fall policies and procedures encompassed: a) the definition of a fall; b) fall risk assessments in SCI rehabilitation; and, c) fall prevention strategies. The post-fall policies and procedures included: a) recovery from a fall; b) incident reporting process; and, c) fall classification. Components of fall prevention/management policies and practices that differed between hospitals included the fall risk assessments, post-fall huddles, and fall classifications. Conclusions Fall prevention/management is a required organizational practice for all hospitals. Although Canadian tertiary hospitals that provide SCI rehabilitation have similar components of fall prevention/management policies and procedures, the specific requirements differ at each site. There is a need for evidence-informed, consensus-driven implementation of SCI-specific fall prevention and management procedures across Canadian SCI rehabilitation settings.