The Center for Health Design and Facilities Guidelines Institute Announce 2009 Research Funding ...(rom the hospital. CHD and FGI awa...),Health

CHD and FGI awarded funds to Margaret Calkins, Ph.D., of Ideas Institute, and Principal Investigator for a Contribution of the Design Environment to Fall Risk in Hospitals. This research project will run through the beginning of 2011, and has an expected publication date of March 2011.

This study will focus on patient falls, a topic which is the most common adverse event reported in acute care settings, and it seeks to provide concrete and practical information on building design and materials that impact falls and their associated injuries in healthcare settings. The first phase of the project will use a Delphi process to develop a reliable falls environment evaluation tool (FEET). Once developed, it will be used to assess the environment in at least 30 hospital units to examine the differential role the environment plays in falls. It is hypothesized that there will be fewer falls and less serious injuries from falls in patient rooms that have more fall-related supportive features and fewer fall-related environmental risk factors.

Upon completion of both studies, the CHD Research Coalition will disseminate the results following a peer-review process.

About The Center for Health Design

The Center for Health Design (CHD) formed in 1993, is a nonprofit research and advocacy organization of forward-thinking healthcare, elder care, design and construction professionals and product manufacturers who are leading the quest to improve the quality of healthcare facilities and create new environments for healthy aging. The CHD Research Coalition promotes the dissemination of research that contributes to therapeutic, safe, efficient and effective healthcare settings. The group also strives to support projects that fill critical gaps in the field of evidence-based design (EBD) while growing the network of
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