Nursing Home Reform Case Study

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FALL PREVENTION IN THE ELDERLY
As the sun was setting and Mrs. Olson was busy preparing supper for her family she heard a scream from the bathroom which was close to the kitchen. “Help! Help! Somebody help!” screamed her husband. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her while breathing very heavily. She could not believe her eyes when she saw her husband laying helplessly on the floor. Mrs. Olson called 911 who rapidly came to her aide. When the paramedics arrived they reported that her husband had a broken hip and would require emergency surgery. Falls are accidental events in which a person falls when their center of gravity is lost and no effort is made to restore balance or the effort is ineffective.
Why is fall so common in the elderly?
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Olson accompanied her husband to the hospital and as she was helping with the paper work the husband was being taken through pre surgery procedures. This was the third time her husband had fallen in a one-month period raising a big concern about his safety at home. The surgery was successful and Mr. Olson had to go through rehab for two weeks. After completing rehab, the social worker talked with them about the need for placing Mr. Olson in a nursing home where he was to receive more help. Mrs. Olson did not ever imagine her husband in a nursing home, with tears falling down her eyes she responded to the social worker by saying “can you please give me time to think about this”. After ten minutes of thinking Mrs. Olson told the social worker that she was going to put lots of interventions like balance exercise, installing grab bars in the bathroom, high raised toilet seats in place to prevent her husband from further falls. American Geriatric society recommend modification of environmental hazards, hip protectors and use of support tools which can be an effective intervention program. All in all, if every fall prevention is put in place there will be less falls and Mr. Jones could have not ended in the Hospital at the time they were about to have their