Targeting heart failure rehospitalizations in a skilled nursing facility: A case report.

Objective: We report on a skilled nursing facility (SNF) that added designated heart failure (HF) beds and created a patient registry to track the number and reasons for rehospitalization.

Background: Targeting the reduction of rehospitalizations from SNFs is an important goal and patients with HF are particularly vulnerable for rehospitalizations as HF disease management programs in SNFs are rare.

Methods: A case study of a local quality improvement initiative.

Predictors of a fall event in hospitalized patients with cancer.

Purpose/objectives: To determine predictors of fall events in hospitalized patients with cancer and develop a scoring system to predict fall events.

Design: Retrospective medical record review.

Setting: A 1,200-bed tertiary care hospital in northeastern Ohio.

Serious fall injuries in hospitalized patients with and without cancer.

Characteristics of adults hospitalized with and without cancer were compared to determine factors of serious injuries after fall events. More patients with cancer who had a serious injury received corticosteroids (P = .005) and were treated on a palliative care floor.

Characteristics of hospitalized cancer patients who fall.

Fall prevention for hospitalized patients is an important nursing quality indicator. Current studies do not describe characteristics of hospitalized patients with cancer who fall, although these patients have been noted to have higher fall and injury rates. This descriptive study represents an initial attempt to identify characteristics of patients hospitalized with cancer who fall compared with adult medical-surgical hospitalized patients who fall.