In 2008, Providence St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank
concentrated on reducing patient falls, with the goal of
improving the safety of care the hospital provides. Based on a
review of patient records, the hospital found that it had an
average of 21 patient falls per month. Eighty percent of the
falls occurred when patients were moving around their room –
particularly when they were using or attempting to use the
bathroom.
In 2009, a trend was identified at Sierra Vista Regional Medical
Center in San Luis Obispo. Upon analysis, it was discovered that
the patient fall rate exceeded the state average and that the
rate of falls with injury was experiencing an upward trend.
