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Te Pū rauemi KOWHEORI-19 COVID-19 resource hub

Support for people working in health during the COVID-19 pandemic. Find information about how you can support yourselves and others, including consumers, teams and colleagues which complements and aligns with Ministry of Health resources.

Kia āta kōwhiri Choosing Wisely

The Choosing Wisely campaign seeks to reduce harm from unnecessary and low-value tests and treatment.


The national reducing harm from falls programme was led by the Health Quality & Safety Commission, working in partnership with a wide range of stakeholder organisations, and ran from 2012 to 2018.

Since the end of the programme the Commission has continued to promote reducing harm from falls through collaboration with sister agencies and sharing of resources.

The programme achieved its aims by working from an evidence base to reduce the risk of falling, rate of falls and severity of injury, and promote the best possible outcomes for those who have suffered harm related to a fall.

The Commission's quality and safety markers were designed to evaluate the success of the programme interventions; they measured care processes and outcomes. From 2021 the process markers no longer needed to be sent to the Commission because the programme entered the sustainability phase. Ongoing monitoring now occurs through the outcome measure.

As the programme was preparing to finish, the results to end September 2017 showed that there had been 107 fewer fractured neck of femurs as a result of an inhospital fall across New Zealand than would otherwise have been expected. This equalled a saving of direct costs of NZ$5 million. On average an avoided broken hip gives an extra 1.6 years of healthy life, this added up to an additional 175 years of healthy life, worth NZ$31.7 million. These results demonstrated the achievement of the programme and a basis for the move to sustainability in 2018.

The programme’s success was made possible by the engagement of stakeholder organisations that worked in partnership with the Health Quality & Safety Commission.

The challenge remains to identify people vulnerable to falls, or specific groups of people such as those with cognitive impairment, within the community and inhospital settings and to maintain initiatives to enable safe and healthy lives.


Useful links and resources

Evidence
Guidance on the prescribing of vitamin D

It is important to maintain adequate vitamin D levels all year round for bone health (Ministry of Health and Cancer Society of New Zealand 2012). Low levels have been associated with reduced bone mineral density, high bone turnover and increased risk of hip fracture (Nowson et al 2012). There is an association between lower serum vitamin D levels and falling (Annweiler and Beauchet 2015).


Links to further information


References

  1. Annweiler C, Beauchet O. 2015. Questioning vitamin D status of elderly fallers and nonfallers: a meta-analysis to address a 'forgotten step'. Journal of Internal Medicine 277(1): 16–44.
  2. Nowson CA, McGrath JJ, Ebeling PR, et al. 2012. Vitamin D and health in adults in Australia and New Zealand: a position statement. Medical Journal of Australia 196(11): 686–7.

Ask assess act resources 

In 2018 the Commission worked with the Accident Compensation Corporation to update the Ask assess act resources and include them as part of the Live Stronger for Longer movement. The updated resources are:

  1. Live Stronger for Longer Ask assess act pocket card
  2. Live Stronger for Longer Ask assess act information poster
  3. Live Stronger for Longer Ask assess act consumer poster
  4. Live Stronger for Longer Ask assess act clinical staff poster

These can be ordered for free via ACC’s website.

To find out more about Live Stronger for Longer visit their website

Useful websites

Published: 27 Oct 2021 Modified: 16 Jan 2024