Two hospitals in Hong Kong were awarded full accreditation for four years by the Australian Council on Healthcare Standards (ACHS). One of the hospitals is the Caritas Medical Centre. It achieved the award based on three achievements in excellence. One of which was a falls management programme.

Hospital Chief Executive of CMC, Dr Ma Hok-cheung, said, The ACHS surveyors commended the impressive work the hospital has done in providing excellent and safe patient care, as well as the high level of awareness and commitment among hospital staff. The culture of continuously improving performance to underpin patient safety and service quality was also well demonstrated by the hospital in the accreditation process.

This is why I am running this series this month. It is certainly an area that we can improve on. We do a lot of talking about managing the fallen patient but there is remarkably little on falls prevention. I know it is mentioned in passing and that the College of Ocupational Therapists have produced a book on falls management, but even this publication fails to show how an effective falls prevention programme can be effectively introduced.

The Caritas Medical Centre

One of two hospitals awarded

full accreditation for four years

by the Australian Council

on Healthcare Standards

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Gavin Wright

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