Assignment

You are the hospital safety officer. A unit nurse has sent an incident report to you about a patient fall. The patient, an 80-year-old man recovering from pneumonia, fell and broke his hip while getting up to go to the restroom.

As the safety officer you know that a broken hip often leads to death in the elderly. Falls are a preventable cause of patient death and can lead to a lawsuit against a hospital. You notify the hospital quality manager that according to your analysis 40 percent of the patient falls in the previous year occurred during the night shift.

There are eight adult units and two pediatric units in the hospital. Incidents of patient falls in a pediatric unit are rare. However, patient falls in the adult units are more frequent.

There are three eight-hour shifts in 24 hours. Last year, there were 80 falls. It is June, and already this calendar year there have been 44 falls.

You are concerned about the potential for a patient death, the potential for a lawsuit, and the hospital accreditation status.

Which of the core quality management tools will you use to analyze the problem?

Explain why you would use the tools you chose.

Is there other data you want as you work on this problem?

Why do you require other data?