Fall Prevention in LTC

Fall prevention in long-term care environments begins with implementing universal risk mitigation strategies, such as removing floor mats, creating unobstructed paths for residents, and ensuring proper bed heights. To advance beyond these first steps, providers should tailor interventions to individual residents, beginning with stratifying the relative risk they present for falls and identifying their modifiable risk factors. While some contributing elements, such as age, cannot be changed, other risk factors are modifiable. Perhaps chief among these modifiable risk factors is the significant collective effects that certain medications contribute to fall risk potential.