CDC’s New Clinical Tools Help Prevent Older Adult Falls

The CDC released two new complimentary clinical tools to help healthcare providers reduce older adult falls. The Coordinated Care Plan to Prevent Older Adult Falls offers primary care providers, practices, and healthcare systems a framework for implementing a Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths, and Injuries, or STEADI-based clinical fall prevention program in primary care settings to manage older patients’ fall risk. Complementing the Coordinated Care Plan, the STEADI: Evaluation Guide for Older Adult Clinical Fall Prevention Programs describes key steps to measuring and reporting on the success of implementing a STEADI-based clinical fall prevention program. CDC recommends using both the Coordinated Care Plan and theEvaluation Guide simultaneously to ensure the team is able to collect the data needed to report on the clinical fall prevention program’s overall success. Older adult falls are the leading cause of all fatal and nonfatal injuries among adults age 65 and over in the United States, accounting for over 3 million emergency department visits, 962,000 hospitalizations, and approximately 30,000 deaths in 2016. Additionally, the economic impact of falls and fall deaths is nearly $50 billion in direct medical costs each year. The Journal of Public Health Management & Practice recently published the attached article on Estimating the Economic Burden Related to Older Adult Falls by State.