visit vch.ca

You are here: Home > Falls are preventable

March 8, 2016

The Regional Falls Working Group (left to right): Yee Tse, Serena Bertoli-Haley, Tanya Dunne Ahn, Sally Breen, and Joya Gamache. Missing: Vivian Eliopoulos, Nancy Desrosiers, Gail Malenstyn, Cori Ross, Jody Sydor-Jones, Nadine Jones, Fabiola Varona, Joan Chocholik, and Paula Rozanski.

Falls are preventable

Did you know that one of the most common incidents for patients is falls? Because of that fact, VCH has the Regional Falls Working Group, a committee of 13 professionals, working on reducing such incidents around the organization.VCH 2016 Accredition Logo (final)

“Falls can be hard to avoid sometimes, but we’ve done a good job at getting those numbers down,” says Tanya Dunne, regional program lead of the Regional Fall & Injury Program at VCH. “I’m proud of all of us, especially our frontline colleagues, for achieving that.”

Additionally, as a part of VCH-wide Accreditation 2016, the group is working to ensure we meet the Tests of Compliance to the Required Organizational Practices (ROP) for the care and safety of our patients, clients and residents.

“The group will be responsible for assessing the current state of Falls Prevention practices as they relate to the ROP tests for compliance, and based on its findings, create an action plan to address the areas of highest risk and ensure that consistent practices, tools or standards are implemented across the region,” Tanya explains. “Maintaining the standards that Accreditation requires is definitely a priority right now.”

Since its recent inception in January, the Working Group has identified common improvement priorities for the different populations of focus for which this ROP is in scope, based on gaps with tests for compliance and highest overall risk. It has also developed a work plan to target the common VCH improvement priorities for each population group, in partnership with local experts and regional programs.