Prevention of patient falls remains a challenge that has eluded healthcare institutions. The effectiveness of targeted multiple fall prevention interventions in reducing the incidences of falling has not been established.
The aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a targeted multiple intervention strategy in reducing the number of falls for patients identified as high-risk for falls.
This study was a prospective randomized controlled trial conducted in an acute care hospital in Singapore between April 2006 and December 2006. We compared the effectiveness of two interventions (targeted multiple interventions with usual care vs. usual care only) on patients identified as high-risk for falls over eight months.
The findings in this study appear to indicate that the targeted multiple intervention strategies for fall prevention may have played an important role in the overall prevention of patient falls. However, it was not possible to isolate which component(s) used in the targeted multiple intervention strategies were the most effective in preventing falls.
The generalizability is limited due given that this research was conducted within a single study center. Further, the number of participants in both groups was small. The routine universal approach is inappropriate as an intervention in preventing patient falls. Individualized targeted multiple fall interventions should be implemented in an acute care setting in addition to the usual fall prevention methods.