Contents
Report the percentage of patients 65 years of age and older who were screened for future fall risk during the measurement period.
Numerator: Patients who were screened for future fall risk at least once within the measurement period.
Denominator: Patients aged 65 years and older at the start of the measurement period with a visit during the measurement period.
Exclusions/Exceptions:
- Exclude patients who are in hospice care for any part of the measurement period.
These are the exclusion document tags for this measure (
Reference:
Tag Reports and Notes with Document Tag)
- EXCLUSION: HOSPICE CARE
- EXCLUSION: IP DISCHARGE STATUS TO HEALTH CARE FACILITY FOR HOSPICE CARE
- EXCLUSION: IP DISCHARGE STATUS TO HOME FOR HOSPICE CARE
- When prompted in the visit note Clinical Reminder that a “Fall risk screening is due”, click “Address”. Click “Administer fall risk assessment” if you are documenting the results of the screening directly in your current visit note. If you’ve uploaded a separate document to the chart that has the screening results, click on “Document existing assessment”.
- You can manually apply a “Falls Assessment” document tag to any visit note or report in the patient’s chart.
- If applying to the document tag to a visit note, scroll towards the bottom of the note and click “+ Tag”. Search for “Falls Assessment” and select the result with a yellow MIPS label.
- If applying the document tag to a report, you can apply the tag while you’re uploading the report and in the Report Details. If the report has already been uploaded to the chart, locate the report in the chart, then click “Actions >> Edit details” to add the tag.
As the leading cause of both fatal and nonfatal injuries for older adults, falls are one of the most common and significant health issues facing people aged 65 years or older (Schneider, Shubert and Harmon, 2010). Moreover, the rate of falls increases with age (Dykes et al., 2010). Older adults are five times more likely to be hospitalized for fall-related injuries than any other cause-related injury. It is estimated that one in every three adults over 65 will fall each year (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2015). In those over age 80, the rate of falls increases to fifty percent (Doherty et al., 2009). Falls are also associated with substantial cost and resource use, approaching $30,000 per fall hospitalization Woolcott et al., 2011). Identifying at-risk patients is the most important part of management, as applying preventive measures in this vulnerable population can have a profound effect on public health (al-Aama, 2011). Family physicians have a pivotal role in screening older patients for risk of falls, and applying preventive strategies for patients at risk (al-Aama, 2011).
Reference: Measure Information from CMS
These tools can be used to satisfy Clinical Quality Measure CMS139v12, Falls: Screening for Future Fall Risk
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