Falls Prevention

1
Falls Prevention Community of
PracticeDepartment of Health, Western
Australia
Luke Slawomirski Office of Safety and
Quality in Healthcare
Delivering a Healthy WA
2
Western Australia

• 2,529,875 km2
• border length 1862 km
• coastline length 20,871km
• Pop approx 2.5M

3
Falls Prevention in WA Health

• July 2006 Safety and Quality Investment for
  Reform (SQuIRe) Program
• Falls Prevention one of eight target areas
• Entire WA public health care system
• Extensive but underutilised professional network
• http//www.safetyandquality.health.wa.gov.au/
  squire/index.cfm

4
CoP Definition

• groups of people who share a concern, set of
  problems, or a passion about a topic, and who
  deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area
  by interacting on an ongoing basis 1,2

5
CoP Components
Roles Responsibilities

• Lead
• Facilitator
• Experts
• Novices

• Social interaction
• Knowledge-sharing
• Knowledge-creation
• Identity-building

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OutcomesWA Falls Prevention CoP

• True interprofessional community
• Clinicians (Nursing, A/health, medical)
• Administrators / Managers
• QI staff
• Researchers / academics
• Consumers
• NGO
• Metropolitan and rural (VC link-up)

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Executive
Intermittent Links
Fall Network Lead
Strong Links
Central Health Dept
Health Service QI Managers
FACILITATOR
Rural
NGOs
Researchers
North Metro
Patient
South metro
Others
Falls Network
Falls Specialists
Pharmacy
Falls reporting
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Outcomes (cont.)

1. Standardised Falls Risk Management Tool
   http//www.healthnetworks.health.wa.gov.au/project
   s/falls_risk.cfm
2. Multi-site investigation of reporting of falls in
   the WA clinical incident reporting system
3. Standardised audit tool
4. Statewide audit for Feb 2011
5. 4 gatherings held (Nov 09, Feb 10, Jun 10, Oct 10)

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Evaluation surveys WA Falls Prevention CoP
Baseline Oct 2009 (n67) F/U June 2010 (n68)
Response Rate 36 56
Communication optimal 17 (24) 49 (35)
Very or highly supported 35 (20) 56 (25)
Adequate resourcing 40 (20) 72 (25)
Committed to CoP 60 (12) 83 (24)
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Conclusions WA Falls Prevention CoP

• Increased communication between quality
  improvement staff
• Improved staff perception of being supported and
  adequately resourced.
• Production of outputs (FRMT).
• Cost neutral

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Challenges

• Embed into routine business
• Self sustaining
• Tyranny of distance
• IT enhancements planned (e.g. blog platform)

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Contact

• Nicholas.waldron_at_health.wa.gov.au
• Karina.moore_at_health.wa.gov.au
• http//www.healthnetworks.health.wa.gov.au/network
  /fallsprevention.cfm
• Luke.slawomirski_at_health.wa.gov.au
• http//www.safetyandquality.health.wa.gov.au/home/
  

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References

• Li LC, Grimshaw JM, Nielsen C, Judd M, Coyte PC,
  Graham ID. Evolution of Wenger's concept of
  community of practice. Implementation Science
  2009, 411 http//www.implementationscience.com/co
  ntent/4/1/11
• Li LC, Grimshaw JM, Nielsen C, Judd M, Coyte PC,
  Graham ID. Use of communities of practice in
  business and health care sectors A systematic
  review. Implementation Science 2009, 427
  http//www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/2
  7
• J Lathlean, A Le May. Communities of Practice an
  opportunity for interagency working. Journal of
  Clinical Nursing 2002 11 394-398

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Acknowledgements

• Doreen Demos
• Nick Waldron
• Karina Moore
• Hannah Seymour
• Wendy McIntosh
• Anne-Marie Hill

Tanya Gawthorne Anabelle May Helen Van
Gessel Tammy Page Shelley Harwood Michelle Taylor