Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program™

My organization is an adult hospital with a small 8-bed pediatric unit. The staff appreciates having a scale that recognizes that boys can be a higher fall risk. Our unit serves patients age 0-20 and we use Humpty Dumpty on all of our patients. Last year when The Joint Commission was here and questioned the use of this scale on a 19 year old, Nicklaus Children's Hospital provided documentation regarding evidence based practice and TJC approval for patients up to 21 years of age. It was awesome to share with the surveyors that the scale we were using had tested and approved. It is rare for us to have any falls.

– Julie Bowen, RN, BSN, Clinical Supervisor Pediatrics
Community Regional Medical Center, Fresno, CA

Prior to adopting the Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program, we reviewed the literature for a validated pediatric fall risk assessment tool. We found the Humpty Dumpty sensitivity to be better than our current tool based on internal quality improvement work. Participating in the current research study conducted by Nicklaus Children’s which examines the psychometrics of the Humpty Dumpty tool will allow us to re-evaluate the sensitivity and specificity of the tool one year post implementation and allow us to explore potential gaps in reliability. While inputting study data, we have already uncovered gaps in the functionality of our EHR in capturing information needed to complete the tool accurately. We have used this opportunity to engage our nursing informatics team in discovering solutions to better capture fall risk factors for our patients here at CHOP.

– Kimberly DiGerolamo
Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

The Hospital has experienced a decline in pediatric patient falls after implementing the Humpty Dumpty Falls Prevention Program from a rate of 1.16 per 1000 patient days in 2013 to 0.89 per 1000 patient days in 2014.

– Lisiane Valdez Gaspar, Qualidade, Gerente da Qualidade e Segurança
Hospital Geral de Itapecerica da Serra

Our users much prefer it over the scale we previously used. The feedback is that this scale takes into consideration more unique elements of childhood. Yes, more patients score “at risk,” but the truth is that the hospitalized child is at risk for falls due to the identified factors – growth and development, medications, procedures, diagnosis, etc.

– Sandy Johnson, Nursing Informatics
Children's of Alabama