The true price of falls in senior care settings

Every second, a senior falls. 50% of patients that fall will experience recurrent falls. Falls significantly impact skilled nursing facilities (SNFs), assisted living facilities, senior living communities, and home health care providers. 

The repercussions go beyond physical harm to the patients themselves, leading to financial and operational strain in care facilities. Every fall is more than an accident; it’s an avoidable expense. Let’s break down the key cost categories:

• Financial cost: Facilities spend an average of $380,000 annually on fall-related expenses, with larger facilities facing costs as high as $712,000. A single temporary resident move-out due to a fall results in a revenue loss of $250 per day over an average of 21 days.

• Reputation and revenue loss: High fall rates may negatively impact CMS ratings, reducing reimbursements in value-based care (VBC) models and deterring prospective residents and provider referrals.
• Operational cost: Staff spend about 17% of their time addressing fall incidents with documentation, emergency response, and follow-up care. Falls contribute to staff burnout, high turnover rates, and the costly cycle of recruiting and training replacements. 
• Lawsuits: Legal claims related to falls range from $510,000 to $2.7 million per year on average.

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What can you do to lower the costs associated with falls

The slightest change in gait can signal major health risks. For example, a mere 0.1 m/s decrease in gait speed is associated with a 12% increase in mortality risk. These subtle shifts are often imperceptible to the naked eye, making early detection crucial.

Traditional workflows that fail to monitor mobility in real-time leave patients vulnerable to functional decline. By the time a referral to therapy is made, significant deterioration has already occurred. To prevent falls and improve outcomes, clinicians need a solution that continuously and objectively assesses fall risk before it’s too late.

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OneStep prevents falls with smartphone-based gait and mobility analysis 

OneStep offers an innovative, proactive solution for fall prevention. Facilities using OneStep experience a substantial drop in fall rates (up to 30%). Leveraging real-time motion intelligence and predictive analytics, the platform equips facilities with actionable insights, and notifies providers of patients with a high fall risk. 

OneStep provides insights into opportunities for clinical interventions, including extensions of care and referrals, to improve CMS ratings and increase reimbursement through value-based care payment models.

In addition to preventing falls, OneStep makes documentation 5 times faster, produces automated reports, and provides seamless integration with other platforms so staff can focus more on other essential tasks and avoid burnout.

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Prevent falls with OneStep’s proactive solution

Facilities that invest in OneStep can effortlessly identify patients with a significant fall risk and intervene before costly falls occur. OneStep is an essential platform that reduces cost, saves lives, and enables providers to devote more of their time to other vital tasks.

Request a demo with OneStep today and see how we can help you decrease falls and their associated costs.