UPPER PENINSULA – Three Upper Peninsula hospitals – Aspirus Ironwood, Aspirus Keweenaw and Aspirus Ontonagon – were chosen by the Hester Davis Nursing Foundation (HD Nursing) to receive the 2021 Organization Excellence Award. This award is considered a huge achievement for all staff at Aspirus as it takes multiple departments working together to keep fall prevention processes a top priority.

Winners of this national award must:

— Demonstrate a strong culture of safety.

— Populate key leadership positions with individuals dedicated to service.

— Embrace the science of the HD Nursing Program.

— Demonstrate a 25-percent improvement from baseline in fall or injury rates, evidencing a commitment to the phases of the HD Nursing Falls Program.

— Develop new leaders and support individual nursing growth through HD Nursing programs.

“Achieving this award is a direct reflection of how dedicated our staff is in caring for our patients with the highest level of quality and compassion,” said Julie Monville, director of nursing from Aspirus Health. “Every staff member plays a vital role in fall prevention.”

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality reports each year in the United States between 700,000 and one million patients fall while hospitalized. About one-third of these falls could be prevented. Factors leading to patient falls include patients not using the call button to request help when exiting their bed, standing or walking; use of high-risk medications that can cause dizziness or impaired mobility; tripping hazards and more.

Aspirus attributes its success to daily education to staff about preventing falls, safety huddles, identifying trends, recognizing staff for identifying and reporting potential issues that could lead to falls, having checklists at shift change and putting new procedures into place when necessary.

“We are grateful and proud of everyone for making this recognition possible, for working together and for taking such wonderful care of the communities we serve,” Monville said.