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The 6-PACK programme to decrease falls and fall-related injuries in acute hospitals : protocol for an economic evaluation alongside a cluster randomised controlled trial

journal contribution
posted on 2012-04-01, 00:00 authored by R Morello, A Barker, Silva ZavarsekSilva Zavarsek, Jennifer WattsJennifer Watts, T Haines, K Hill, C Sherrington, C Brand, Damien Jolley, J Stoelwinder
Background Falls are a common hospital occurrence complicating the care of patients. From an economic perspective, the impact of in-hospital falls and related injuries is substantial. However, few studies have examined the economic implications of falls prevention interventions in an acute care setting. The 6-PACK programme is a targeted nurse delivered falls prevention programme designed specifically for acute hospital wards. It includes a risk assessment tool and six simple strategies that nurses apply to patients classified as high-risk by the tool.
Objective To examine the incremental cost-effectiveness of the 6-PACK programme for the prevention of falls and fall-related injuries, compared with usual care practice, from an acute hospital perspective.
Methods and design The 6-PACK project is a multicentre cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) that includes 24 acute medical and surgical wards from six hospitals in Australia to investigate the efficacy of the 6-PACK programme. This economic evaluation will be conducted alongside the 6-PACK cluster RCT. Outcome and hospitalisation cost data will be prospectively collected on approximately 16 000 patients admitted to the participating wards during the 12-month trial period. The results of the economic evaluation will be expressed as ‘cost or saving per fall prevented’ and ‘cost or saving per fall-related injury prevented’ calculated from differences in mean costs and effects in the intervention and control groups, to generate an incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER).
Discussion This economic evaluation will provide an opportunity to explore the cost-effectiveness of a targeted nurse delivered falls prevention programme for reducing in-hospital falls and fall-related injuries. This protocol provides a detailed statement of a planned economic evaluation conducted alongside a cluster RCT to investigate the efficacy of the 6-PACK programme to prevent falls and fall-related injuries.

History

Journal

Injury prevention

Volume

18

Issue

2

Pagination

1 - 6

Publisher

BMJ Group

Location

London, England

ISSN

1353-8047

eISSN

1475-5785

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1.1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal

Copyright notice

2012, BMJ Publishing Group