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Identification Strategies For The Very High Fall Risk Patient In An Acute Inpatient Psychiatric Unit, P6 Inpatient Geri-Med Psychiatry, Haley Pelletier, Suneela Nayak, Stephen Tyzik, Ruth Hanselman

MaineHealth Maine Medical Center

Patients falling as a result of geriatric and psychiatric impairments are at a much higher risk than the average patient population. An acute care inpatient psychiatric team used baseline metrics to demonstrate increasing fall rates per month that surpassed the unit’s target number. As a result, a quality improvement project around falls was felt to be warranted.

The overall goal of this study was to improve patient safety by reducing falls for their very high risk fall population. A root cause analysis determined that this population was not being properly identified and several tools were developed and employed to better …

Critically Appraised Paper For “The Effects Of A Home-Based Virtual Reality Rehabilitation Program On Balance Among Individuals With Parkinson’S Disease”, Amanda Lee, Sophie E. Miller, Holly Snyder, Phoebe Taasan, Kitsum Li

Occupational Therapy | Critically Appraised Papers Series

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a 12-week home-based exercise program using the Nintendo Wii system in its capacity to improve balance and balance confidence and maintain exercise compliance. Balance and balance confidence were measured with the Center of Pressure Length (COPL) and Activities-Specific Balance Confidence Scale (ABC), which were administered before the start of the intervention, 6 weeks into the intervention, and within 1 week postintervention. Although changes in balance and balance confidence scores were found to be nonsignificant, a pattern emerged in which scores for both measures rose between preand postintervention assessments, then fell to nearly baseline levels …