Patient Falls Prevention: Assessing the Use of an Innovative Color-Coded Flag System in an Outpatient Oncology Infusion Center

Patients in outpatient oncology settings are highly susceptible to falls. Because clothing can hide a patient’s wrists, fall-alert risk bands may not be not consistently visible. Using an inexpensive, innovative, and visually accessible color-coded flag system placed outside of each infusion room decreased the outpatient oncology patient fall rate from 5% to 0% within six months.

AT A GLANCE

• Falls with injury cause emotional and physical distress in patients with cancer. 
• An effective strategy to prevent patient falls in the outpatient infusion center is to implement a color-coded flag system. 
• The inexpensive color-coded flag system used in this project helped to reduce the rate of falls.