Regional hospital in Southwest Kansas takes proactive steps to prevent patient falls
Pictured are Southwest Medical Center’s (SWMC) staff who have been instrumental in assisting with its Focus on Falls initiative. Front row, left to right: Avery Ysac, CNA; Erin Guitron, CNA; Reyna Tarango, W/C; Courtney Chim, RN; Marian Eruagbere, RN; Jentry Strothman, LPN; and Beji Saji, RN. Back row left to right: Michael McCallion, LPN; William Salvador, LPN; Nichole Eatmon, CNA; Jaime Torres, CNA; Gissell Uribe, RN; and Mirella Buchman, RN, Nurse Manager.
Southwest Medical Center (SWMC) is a not-for-profit acute care hospital with 89 beds in Liberal, Kansas, also serving patients from nearby Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico.
As part of their participation in the Compass HQIC program in partnership with KHC, SWMC identified falls prevention as one of its top patient safety goals. This is, in part, because the hospital saw a spike in patient falls during 2020 as compared to 2019. SWMC is now in their first five months of planning, educating staff, and taking action on interventions. They named the initiative “Focus on Falls.”
Team members of the community collaboration group in Ellsworth County, central Kansas.
The feedback goes both ways between the Patient and Family Advisory Committee (PFAC) and the Labette Health Physicians Group, according to Missy Beasley. Recently she was invited to present at the PFAC meetings at Labette Health in Parsons, Kansas.
