IMPROVING THE DELIVERY OF WRITTEN COMMUNICATION TO PATIENTS PRESENTING TO THE FRAILTY ASSESSMENT SERVICE FOLLOWING A FALL.

Introduction NICE guidelines recommend for healthcare professionals to give patients both verbal and written information when explaining how to prevent further falls at home, how to cope with falls and where they can seek further advice or assistance. Most of the patients seen by the Frailty Assessment Service (FAS) at Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital (NSECH) will remain at a high falls risk even on discharge. An emphasis should be made on educating patients about how best they can manage their risks at home to prevent further falls. Method Over a six month period, data on patients seen by the FAS team was collected by reviewing electronic case notes and the daily patient list to identify presenting complaint and whether a falls leaflet was given on discharge. Results Following three cycles of intervention, the rate of falls leaflet distribution to patients discharged following a fall increased from an initial 0% to 24%, then to 55% and finally to 72%. Interventions included, in order; educating all frailty nurse practitioners, amending the daily patient list to include a separate column to prompt ticking if a falls leaflet was given, and notifying all frailty consultants to consider including “falls leaflet” as part of their post-take management plans. Conclusion Having a paper information leaflet can be invaluable to patients as it allows them to go away with concrete bits of information that they can always refer back to. This ensures that elderly patients do not face the risk of forgetting any advice given to them verbally during a consultation and written communication would only help to reinforce this instead. In future, it may be helpful to identify if there are reduced rates of re-admission to hospital in patients discharged with a falls leaflet compared to patients discharged without one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]