Comparison of two fall-risk assessment tools used in a long-term care facility

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to compare the ability of the Morse Fall Scale (MFS) and Farmer's fall-risk assessment tool (FFAT) to identify correlations between risk factors and falls among older adult long-term care (LTC) facility residents.

Design/methodology/approach

This was a correlational retrospective study. 200 medical records of older adults hospitalized in a LTC facility in central Israel, from January 2017 to January 2018, were examined.

Findings

Of all the residents, 75% and 99.5% of the residents were identified as having a high fall risk according to the MFS and FFAT, respectively. Only 12.5% of residents actually fell. MFS score was weakly correlated with actual falls (odds ratio = 1.035). It was also found that all fallers fell during their first week at the facility.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should explore the ability of the tools to capture changes in the fall risk by repeat assessments, as this has not been examined in the present study.

Practical implications

The MFS and FFAT tool may have little value in assessing fall risk in older adult LTC facility residents. Therefore, nurses should perform a clinical evaluation of each individual patient. In addition, nurses should place a particular emphasis on fall risk and prevention during the first week following admission.

Originality/value

The findings of the present study raise doubts regarding the utility of the common practice of assessing fall risk in older adult LTC facility residents using the tools MFS and the FFAT, thus emphasizing the need to adopt a different approach.

Citation

Glass, A., Mendelson, G. and Ben Natan, M. (2020), "Comparison of two fall-risk assessment tools used in a long-term care facility", International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, Vol. 33 No. 3, pp. 237-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJHCQA-03-2019-0065