Best Practices Guidelines - Fall Management

Falls are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the elderly who reside in nursing facilities. About 50 percent of residents fall annually, and 10 percent of these falls result in serious injury, especially hip fracture.

The Quality Practice Work Group has developed guidelines for falls management that now are being tested by a consortium of 20 volunteer nursing facilities matched according to size, case mix and past falls rate. Ten of the homes participating in the Falls Reduction Consortium are following the best practices guidelines while the other 10 are continuing as usual. Researchers from the University of Kansas School of Nursing are facilitating the trials.

These guidelines are intended to provide Adult Care Homes with guidance and tools to assist their staff with resident assessment, care planning, fall investigation and appropriate interventions to mediate the number and consequences of resident falls. These are not required documents and their use does not necessarily assure compliance with State or Federal Regulatory requirements.

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• Quality Practice Guidelines For Falls Management


• Admission Nursing Assessent - Briggs Form CFS5-3HH
• Full Risk Assessment Med Pass Form - CP1706
• Fall Risk Assessment
• Interdisciplinary Fall Risk Assessment
• Facility Environmental Walk Through Checklist
• Pharmacist Fall Risk Assessment
• Resident Assessment Protocol: Falls
• Fall Incident Assessment
• Fall Incident Report
• Fall Reduction Strategies
• Pharmacy Response - Initial Fall Investigation
• Therapy Post Fall Screen
• Safety Committee Fall Investigation
• Safety Committee Fall Occurrence Review
• Resident Fall Tracking Log - Briggs Form 3091
• Facility Fall Tracking Log