Fall Prevention Program Implementation Guide

This section provides an overview of AHRQ’s Fall Prevention Program and the associated training curriculum.

AHRQ’s Fall Prevention Program

AHRQ’s Fall Prevention Program grew out of a 3-year AHRQ-funded pilot initiative whose purpose was threefold:

• To develop training resources that provide guidance on how to use and implement into practice the tools and strategies outlined in AHRQ’s Preventing Falls in Hospitals: A Toolkit for Improving Quality of Care.
• To provide training and ongoing technical assistance—using the newly developed training curriculum—to a cohort of hospitals selected to implement the Toolkit.
• To evaluate the impact of implementing AHRQ’s Toolkit, combined with training and technical assistance, on participating hospitals’ fall-related outcomes.

AFYA, Inc., led the project team, with support from partners ECRI Institute and Stratis Health. During the first year of the initiative, AFYA and its partners designed and developed a focused training curriculum based on AHRQ’s Toolkit (see Training Curriculum below). In addition, they recruited 10 varied and geographically diverse hospitals to participate in a 2-year pilot implementation program. Quality improvement specialists (QISs) supported hospital implementation through structured training and ongoing technical assistance. The project team developed this Guide to share participating hospitals’ implementation strategies, experiences, and lessons learned with hospitals like yours.

Training Curriculum

The training curriculum is designed to help hospitals implement AHRQ's Fall Prevention Toolkit. It is composed of an in-person training and supplementary webinars.

In-Person Training

This 6-hour interactive working meeting provides an opportunity to discuss your hospital’s current needs, policies, and procedures. The training supports adult learning and allows participating staff to immediately apply their new knowledge to their fall reduction efforts.

The in-person training has the following objectives:

• Educate your hospital leadership and Implementation Team on the AHRQ Fall Prevention Toolkit to facilitate the change process in your hospital.
• Develop hospital-specific action plans for implementing a Fall Prevention Program using the Toolkit.
• Identify some of the specific challenges for fall prevention in your hospital.
• Use and adapt the tools and resources contained in the Toolkit to implement the Fall Prevention Program.

The in-person training is broken into five training modules that are aligned with key sections of the AHRQ Fall Prevention Toolkit:

• Module 1: Understanding Why Change Is Needed.
• Module 2: How To Manage Change.
• Module 3: Best Practices in Fall Prevention.
• Module 4: How To Implement the Fall Prevention Program in Your Organization.
• Module 5: How To Measure Fall Rates and Fall Prevention Practices.

Each module includes participant slides. It also includes an instructor training guide with the following sections:

• Module Aim.
• Module Goals.
• Timing.
• Learning Methodology Checklist.
• Materials Checklist.
• Additional Related Training Resources.
• Instructor Preparation.
• Script.
• Supplementary Webinars:
  • These 12 recorded webinars (four training webinars and eight Learning Network webinars) are intended to supplement the in-person training. Training participants should view them outside of the in-person training.
  • It is strongly recommended that participants view all four training webinars during the Training Phase (see Fall Prevention Program Phases: Training Phase). The Learning Network webinars are intended for use by relevant staff on an as-needed basis. Appendix C describes the supplementary webinars in more detail.

Alignment With Toolkit

The training modules and supplementary webinars were designed to align with AHRQ’s Fall Prevention Toolkit. Table 1 shows how they align. **Note: Chapters 1 and 6 of the Toolkit are covered in Module 1 of the training program.

Table 1. Training Module and Webinar Alignment With Toolkit