about patients falling down since falls can lead to regulatory hand slaps, additional costs of care that may not be reimbursed, and lawsuits, as well as, most important of all, patients getting hurt. The managerial response to this risk is to require more charting on whether a patient could fall. Every shift, I complete a full fall assessment on every patient, noting age, whether he’s on narcotics, if he’s incontinent and unsteady on his feet, and if there have been falls recently. The electronic health record then gives the patient a fall risk ranking of low, medium, or high. Each level of
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