Falls and fractures

Healthscope ARCH project

Falls prevention

There were over 50,000 falls in Australian hospitals in 2019. More than one third resulted in injuries or increased length of stay, resulting in substantial costs to hospitals, healthcare providers, insurers and individuals.

This unique research collaboration aims to reduce hospital falls to improve the patient experience and patient outcomes.The project brings together a major hospital provider (Healthscope), a leading educational design and workforce training partner (Holmesglen Institute) and top falls researchers from six Australian universities (La Trobe University, Monash University, Sydney University, Queensland University of Technology, Deakin University and Curtin University) to improve health service procedures.

The project uses implementation science principles to optimise clinical practice. This is achieved through systematic reviews of international literature on the methods used to prevent and assess the risk of hospital falls.

It advances clinician education to improve hospital falls risk assessment, and has established clinician training and patient self-management programs to better prevent and manage hospital falls. It has also formed a “Falls Cluster” Community of Practice across hospitals, supported by educational resources, policies and procedures.