Are Interprofessional Roundtable Debriefings Useful in Decreasing ED Fall Rates? Findings From a Quality-Improvement Project

ProblemThere are more than 1 million patient falls each year in the United States. Falls are known to be a sign of poor health, are a marker of decline in function, and are associated with high morbidity. The objective of this study was to determine the effectiveness of a Falls Roundtable intervention for reducing the rates of patient falls in an urban academic trauma center emergency department.MethodsWe implemented a Falls Roundtable performance-improvement debriefing intervention in a single urban academic emergency department. To evaluate this intervention, we conducted a retrospective analysis of patient fall events 13 months before and 14 months after implementation. We evaluated pre- and post-intervention differences in the total number of assisted falls, unassisted falls, and rate of falls.ResultsDespite a slowly improving trend in falls after the intervention, there was no statistically significant improvement in the number of assisted falls, number of unassisted falls, or rate of falls. The Falls Roundtable intervention was helpful in identifying many additional actionable improvement opportunities in the emergency department.Implications for practiceThe Falls Roundtable incident debriefing intervention alone does not appear to be an effective tool for falls prevention in the ED setting but may serve as an integral component of a multifaceted fall-reduction strategy.