Elopement Prevention in a Skill Nursing Facility

Answer

Elopement Prevention in a Skill Nursing Facility

Elopement is one of the challenges facing nursing, especially in regard to the dementia patients who are prone to wandering. Elopement refers to a dependent resident getting out of a health care facility without knowledge of departure, observation by anybody, or under a circumstance which places the individual’s welfare, safety, and health at risk.

Project Aim

The aim of this project is to reduce the rate of elopement amongst the patients residing in healthcare facilities. Because of the status of a patient, leaving a healthcare facility under unclear circumstances poses health concerns not only to the patient, but also to the public. Therefore, this project aims at recommending effective measures that would prevent elopement and all patients in their respective healthcare facilities until they formally discharged. The paper also aims at coming up with precautions that would ensure the safety as well as security of patients and help in keeping them away from escaping the healthcare facilities so easily without observation. It is important to note that keeping patients in healthcare facilities would play a great role in ensuring effective delivery of care services to the patients and protecting their lives from unexpected risks (Alix McNulty et al., 2016). The project would also educate caregivers on best ways to handle patients to reduce elopement.

Project Value

            Elopement outside healthcare facilities has got numerous consequences which affect the patients, care providers as well as the medical facilities. This project would, therefore, help in reducing the rate of elopement thus ensuring the safety of patients and protecting the lives of the general public from harmful patients. Essentially, the advancement of the changes and implementation of the proposed changes, including increasing the number of supervisors, regularly engaging the patients, and providing psychological support are bound to benefit the healthcare industry. Healthcare organizations would reduce the cost of employing many workers to watch the patients (Mangini & Wick, 2017). Stakeholders such as family members will also do away with the money spent on searching for the patients. Employment of effective technological approaches, including wander alarm bracelets, door codes, and door alarms would notify the care providers in case a patient wants to leave the facility (Andersen et al., 2016). This would help the care providers to fully care for patients without wandering about whether one will escape from the facility without their knowledge. Moreover, the use of visual marketers and tracking systems would enable the family members of a patient to track the whereabouts of their loved ones, leading to a reduction or preventing elopement. Lastly, the strategies suggested by the project would ensure safety of the patients, for example, from getting hurt when passing through hospital fences.

Project Desired Outcomes

In the implementation of this project, one of the expected outcomes is a decrease in cases of elopement by 98%. The facility also expects to reduce money spent on searching lost patient and put it on the delivery of health care services to patients. It is also expected that the strategies recommended by the project such as wander alarm bracelets, door codes, and door alarms would ensure effective monitoring of patients, especially those with the problem of wandering. Educating the care givers is expected to equip them with the necessary skills and knowledge of handing patients, especially those with the problem of wandering (Mangini & Wick, 2017). In the same vein, the project is expected to promote effective and efficient delivery of health care services to all patients.