Care home provider backs initiative to better manage falls and save the NHS around £2bn per year
Shropshire Partners in Care (SPIC) has backed a smart new initiative that will enable care home providers to manage resident falls more effectively, which could help the NHS save around £2 billion a year.
Designed to reduce the amount of time a resident is left on the floor after a fall, the initiative provides care homes with falls management training, a health assessment app called ISTUMBLE and a lifting cushion called the Mangar Eagle.
Originally developed by the West Midlands Ambulance Service, ISTUMBLE takes care workers through a list of health checks before indicating whether to lift the resident or call for an ambulance.
45 per cent of people aged over 65 will be uninjured after a fall and around one in three people over 65 and one in two people over 80 fall at least once each year, according to Mangar Health.
Additionally, it found that a person is three times more likely to fall in a care home or hospital environment, with 86,000 hip fractures per year, 95 per cent of all hip fractures, result from a fall, which costs the NHS around £2 billion a year.
As the NHS comes under increasing resource pressures, non-urgent emergency calls are allocated lower priority response times. Wait times for an ambulance average around 4 hours in these circumstances but in the height of winter, this can increase to 8 hours or more.
This means when a resident falls in a care home with a no lift policy, they will spend a long time on the floor waiting for an ambulance even though they are uninjured. The consequences of this time on the floor, known as a long lie, can be more serious than the fall itself.
Emma Yeomans, Training Officer from Shropshire Partners in Care, says, “We understand that falls will always happen, however good the care is and however carefully fall prevention measures are put in place.
“At Shropshire Partners in Care we are committed to supporting our members with solutions, such as this post fall management initiative, that supports both the care provider and their residents.”
Shropshire Partners in Care partnered with NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, the local Integrated Care Board, to introduce the falls management initiative to 24 care homes and four domiciliary care agencies in Shropshire. The associated training empowers care workers to make good decisions around lifting and secure better outcomes for their residents.
Established in 2003, Shropshire Partners in Care is a not-for-profit membership organisation that represents adult social care providers across Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin. They act as the local voice for the organisations they represent, supporting providers in negotiations with local authorities and the NHS.
Mobility equipment supplier Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare recently launched the Solite Pro Ultra Low profiling bed, expanding its range of home care and residential care beds for those most vulnerable to falls.
