Impact of the use of the 4Ps in hourly rounds on reductions in patient falls in wards
Salman Wasl Althobaiti
Abstract
The merits of using 4Ps hourly rounding by nursing staff of wards in reducing patient falls in hospitals were reviewed using published literature. Poor in-hospital patient safety compromises positive patient outcomes. If a patient falls just before discharge, his discharge is delayed. If the fall is related to hospital factors, the patient and people around him are disturbed. Spread of this news can affect the reputation of the hospital. This leads to reduction in patient volume ultimately affecting its business performance. While it is very difficult to earn good reputation, it is fairly easy to earn bad reputation and it is very difficult to remove bad reputation and it can take a long time. Both these medical and business factors promoted much research on the topic. Increasing chronic diseases and ageing can lead to in-hospital patient falls depending upon factors of hospital infrastructure, care policies, patient access to service areas, patient volume in relation to facilities, ward facilities, patient age and physical and medical conditions and competence of nursing staff.