To Prevent Falls, No Patient Walks Alone

The telemetry unit at San Diego Medical Center launched its “No One Walks Alone” campaign to reduce its high rate of patient falls. Rather than assess a patient’s risk of falling, they now treat every patient as a fall risk and ensure each patient is accompanied — especially to and from the bathroom. By installing bed alarms and rounding on patients hourly, falls decreased dramatically and the practices were spread throughout the hospital. The monthly rate of patient falls has dropped from 16 to 3.

TTP

Archived content

Live, non-archived content

TTP Blurb

From an average of 16 patient falls per month, the number went down to three a month.

Why This Matters

Both patients and morale were suffering at the San Diego Medical Center telemetry unit, which had twice as many patient falls as the next-worst unit.

Test of Change

Treat every patient as a fall risk and ensure each patient is accompanied — especially to and from the bathroom, when most falls occur

Short Teaser

Check out our toolkit on patient safety.

Medium Teaser

The nurses at this telemetry unit learn that treating every patient as a fall risk creates a safer environment. Their team’s “No One Walks Alone” campaign greatly reduced patient fal

Long Teaser

The nurses at this telemetry unit learn that treating every patient as a fall risk creates a safer environment. Their team’s “No One Walks Alone” campaign greatly reduced patient falls.

Nav Section

Team-Tested Practices

Preview Image