Respond to a falls risk near miss

What is going on

Lena Petrova has logged a near miss for Margaret Hoban, who felt dizzy standing from her chair and held the rail. In the same week Margaret's daughter Carol complained that three different workers attended and one arrived 40 minutes late without a call. Tom Brennan, the Home and Community Care Manager, wants a falls risk review completed before the end of the week, Margaret's plan review brought forward, and the complaint answered within the timeframe in the procedure. Margaret is clear that she wants to keep showering in the morning and does not want a hospital bed in her lounge room. Her GP has not reviewed her blood pressure medication for a year.

Your brief

Investigate the near miss, assess and reduce Margaret's falls risk with her, update her support plan and home risk assessment, respond to Carol's complaint honestly, and fix the rostering pattern that caused it, all while respecting Margaret's right to make her own decisions.

Work through it

You do not need to do it all. Doing a few of these will show you what the work is like. Your ticks and notes stay on this device.

• Read the near miss in the Incident and Hazard Register and the recent progress notes for Margaret Hoban, and list the factors that increase her risk of a fall.
• Apply the falls screening questions in the Client Intake and Assessment Procedure during a visit with Margaret and record the result and her own view of what would help.
• Update the Home Environment Risk Assessment Template for Margaret's bathroom and lounge, rating each hazard and recording controls she agrees to and any she declines.
• Revise Margaret's Individual Support Plan with the falls prevention strategies, the transfer method and the request for a GP medication review, and record the new review date in the Client Register.
• Draft a referral summary for Margaret's GP and an occupational therapy request, using only information Margaret has consented to share.
• Review the Roster and Shift Log for Margaret and propose a roster with no more than two regular workers, then record the change request for the rostering desk.
• Update the Feedback and Complaints Register entry from Carol Hoban, draft the written response and record the date it was acknowledged and resolved.
• Close the near miss in the Incident and Hazard Register with the actions taken and a note on what the team will do differently.

What someone in this role would produce

• Completed falls screening and updated Home Environment Risk Assessment
• Revised Individual Support Plan with review date
• GP referral summary and occupational therapy request
• Roster change request
• Complaint response and updated register entries