Inpatient falls can lead to injury, prolonged stays, lack of patient independence, and additional resource expense. The long-term goal of this program of research is to understand factors that contribute to falls and to develop and test interventions to prevent them. Little research has been done on the nursing staff's response time to patient call lights as it contributes to predicting patient falls. This project extends the PI's preliminary findings on the risk factors for inpatient falls, and specifically on the relationship of the call light usage and response time to falls and patient satisfaction.
The specific aims of this proposed study are to examine the unique contribution of call light response time in predicting: 1) total fall rates, 2) injurious fall rates, and 3) patients'perceptions about call light responsiveness. We will analyze data from 32 units from four Michigan hospitals (three teaching hospitals and one community hospital) using archived hospital data/reports from January 2002 to December 2008. Data will be abstracted from the archived hospital data/reports and multiple regression analyses will be used to address the following hypotheses: H1) Call light response time will contribute significantly to predicting fall rates. H2) Call light response time will contribute significantly to predicting injurious fall rates. H3) Call light response time will contribute significantly to predicting patients'perceptions about call light responsiveness. The dependent variables are the total fall rate, injurious fall rate, and patients'perceptions about call light responsiveness. The primary independent variable is call light response time. The control variables are the hospital, unit type, call light use rate, total nursing hours per patient-day (HPPDs), and percent of the total nursing HPPDs supplied by RNs. For the regression analyses, the patient care unit-month will be the unit of analysis defined as data aggregated by month for each patient care unit. The sample size (N=2688) will provide adequate statistical power. Findings from this multi-hospital study design will increase the understanding of the relation between staff response time to call lights and falls and patient perceptions in multiple adult inpatient acute care units and will lay the foundation for future descriptive and intervention studies. The long-term goal is to promote safer hospital stays for inpatients, including fewer inpatient falls and fall injuries.
Statement of Relevance to Public Health Research Inpatient falls consistently comprise the largest single category of reported accidental falls in hospitals, yet the relationship of falls to the staff response time to patient call lights has not been studied. This project will examine the contribution of the nursing staff's average response time to call lights in predicting the fall rates, injurious fall rates, and patient perceptions about call light responsiveness. The insights about call light responsiveness and their relation to patient safety and satisfaction outcomes will be used to develop ways to reduce falls.
| Tzeng, Huey-Ming; Grandy, Glenda A; Yin, Chang-Yi (2013) Staff response time to call lights and unit-acquired pressure ulcer rates in adult in-patient acute care units. Contemp Nurse 45:182-7 |
| Tzeng, Huey-Ming; Titler, Marita G; Ronis, David L et al. (2012) The contribution of staff call light response time to fall and injurious fall rates: an exploratory study in four US hospitals using archived hospital data. BMC Health Serv Res 12:84 |
| Tzeng, Huey-Ming; Ronis, David L; Yin, Chang-Yi (2012) Relationship of actual response time to call lights and patient satisfaction at 4 US hospitals. J Nurs Care Qual 27:E1-8 |
| Tzeng, Huey-Ming; Larson, Janet L (2011) Exploring the relationship between patient call-light use rate and nurse call-light response time in acute care settings. Comput Inform Nurs 29:138-43 |
| Tzeng, Huey-Ming (2010) Inpatient falls in adult acute care settings: influence of patients' mental status. J Adv Nurs 66:1741-6 |
