Hendricks Regional Health has a patient-centric fall prevention program that provides all patients with the individual support they need to ambulate safely. To provide equitable fall prevention, three tools are utilized when assessing fall risk:
- Individualized Fall Risk Assessment Tool (Adult, Pediatric, Obstetrics) assists in determining if a patient is at risk for falling during their hospital admission and identifies the need for bed alarm utilization.
- Safe Patient Mobilization Protocol is utilized to determine the safest method to assist the patient during ambulation and repositioning in bed.
- Individualized Safety Tool promotes in-room interdisciplinary communication, sharing safe ambulation information about the patient.
In addition to assessing fall risk, many ambulation assistive devices are available for all populations encouraging safe mobilization:
- Slide sheets (universal)
- Gait belts (standard/bariatric)
- Lifts with slings (standard/bariatric)
- Turn and reposition systems (standard/bariatric)
- Wheelchairs (standard/bariatric)
- Walkers (standard/bariatric)
- Canes
Clinical associates conduct a mobility challenge with each ambulation to assess mobilization readiness and progression/regression. Adjustments to fall prevention interventions are made if needed.