Acute inpatient Rehabilitation Unit Falls Prevention Program

Falls prevention monitoring led to a closer look at Mercy Medical Center's acute inpatient rehabilitation population. It was noted that 90 percent of patients who fell in December 2009 were cerebral vascular accident patients. Twenty-two percent of the patients who fell had left-sided CVAs, 67 percent had right-sided CVAs and 11 percent had bilateral CVAs. These data led the facility to further study right-sided brain injuries and offer an education program for staff. As a result, changes were initiated to focus the hospital's falls prevention program on right-sided brain injury patients.