Tag: falls

PCORI, NIH Announce Plans For $30 Million Study On Falls

By Susan Jaffe  June 5,2014 KAISER HEALTH NEWS  in collaboration with wapo

The nation’s largest and most intensive study of how to best prevent seniors’ injuries from falling will begin next year under a $30 million grant announced Wednesday by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute and the National Institutes of Health. A diverse group of 6,000 adults over age 75 or their caregivers will be recruited around the country to participate in the study.

More than 18,000 seniors died as the result of falls in 2010, and thousands more are injured every year, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“A serious fall that leads to a bone fracture or hospitalization has been demonstrated to be one of the most devastating events in the life of an older person, comparable to a serious stroke,” said Dr. Thomas Gill, a geriatrician and professor at Yale School of Medicine and one of the study’s three principal investigators. [More from KHN] [More from Washington Post]…

IG Report Findings Could Strengthen Nursing Home Inspections

By Susan Jaffe | Kaiser Health News | March 7, 2014 | in collaboration with The Washington Post

Federal efforts to strengthen inspections of the nation’s nursing homes are gaining momentum after a government probe uncovered instances of substandard care.

The March 3 report by the HHS Inspector General found that an estimated one-third of residents suffered harm because of substandard care and that the chances of nursing home inspectors discovering these “adverse events” are “slim to none,” said Ruth Ann Dorrill, a deputy regional director for the inspector general and the manager of the investigation.

Nearly 60 percent of these incidents were preventable — including injuries due to falls or medication errors — and more than half of residents were hospitalized as a result, costing Medicare an estimated $2.8 billion in 2011, according to investigators. In 6 percent of the cases, poor care contributed to residents’ deaths….

After reviewing a September draft of the IG report, Medicare officials became interested in using the IG’s investigative techniques, methods not normally used in measuring nursing home quality, Dorrill said. [Continued on KHN and The Washington Post]…