Linda Fanning

Thanks to the innovation of a team of pharmacists and nurses, Mercy Health Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, has reduced the number of patients injured by falls by almost half. The team developed a tool to assess a patient’s risk for falls by analyzing the effect of medications. As a result, Mercy is one of six health facilities in the nation to be awarded the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Best Practices Award.

“Our program at Mercy has had a significant effect on patient safety and that’s why we are receiving calls from around the world about how we reduced patient falls—a national problem among health care facilities,” said Burl Beasley, MPH, DPh, Mercy pharmacist. “Many medications, including over-the-counter drugs, and the combination of them, can cause dizziness, especially in patients 65 and older. By scoring patients at risk, we are preventing falls.”

Mercy nurses and pharmacists work together to generate a medication-specific fall risk score for each patient admitted. If a patient scores high, it triggers the pharmacist to review the patient’s full medication profile, along with recommendations to reduce the risk of a fall, including suggested changes in drugs, doses and laboratory surveillance, as well as additional patient and family education. 

“Our staff nurses fill out risk assessments on every patient and work together with our pharmacy to decrease falls,” said Linda Fanning, RN, MS, Mercy’s chief nursing officer. “Together, we are making a difference in patient safety.”  

Last year, Mercy was awarded $10,000 by ASHP and given a 10th Annual Institute for Safe Medication Practice Cheers Award for the innovative fall-prevention program.