"Preventing Falls, Promoting Fitness," a program created by staff members of Woodbury Center for Health Care that prevents resident mishaps while maintaining patients' freedom, was named the winner of the 1998 Optima Award for Excellence in Resident-Focused Care last month, an honor bestowed by the Beverly Foundation and Nursing Homes Long Term Care Management trade magazine.

An award presentation and reception will be held at the facility, located on Jericho Turnpike in Woodbury, on Saturday, October 5 at 2 p.m.

According to Editor of Nursing Homes Richard Peck, in his September 1998 editorial, the annual Optima Awards program, now in its third year, was created "to give nursing home staffs an opportunity to show their professionalism, dedication and pride." Entrants must demonstrate that they have successfully developed a groundbreaking program that in some way improves the care provided at their facility. An independent panel of experts then uses a scoring system to determine the winner. And according to Peck in an interview, "Woodbury Center for Health Care came out quite clearly on top."

The Woodbury facility's program was created by Director of Nursing Services Jill Smoller, Physical Therapist Kristel Weidenman, Nursing Supervisor Maureen Sinclair and Recreaton Therapist Kim Gioia. "This task force did an outstanding job, as did all of the staff, in carrying out the program," said Fred White, the center's administrator. "They not only met, but exceeded all of their established goals in reducing Woodbury's incidences of falls and use of restraints to levels that are well below national, state and regional averages."

Indeed, in 1996, one year before the program was implemented, the average number of falls was 17 per month. From April to December of 1997, however, after the program was set into action, the average fell dramatically to seven per month, well below the natioanl average.

One of the goals of "Preventing Falls, Promoting Fitness" was to study and detect patterns in prior falls and mishaps at the facility. Once charting these trends, the creative staff was able to determine who was most vulnerable to falls.

"I think the thing that impressed all of the judges was they just really looked at [everything] very carefully. They discovered very quickly in their monitoring programs that there were certain times that people fell, and different reasons," said Glen Duncan, Optima program director at the Beverly Foundation, a nonprofit organization in Pasadena, CA dedicated to improving the quality of life of seniors.

What the staff discovered was that many falls occurred when seniors became restless and, in moving about, exceeded their own physical capacities.

Therefore, to provide seniors with a physical outlet and to improve their coordination, the facility began to offer three programs - geriatric conditioning, tai chi and ballroom dancing, offered to seniors on a basis of physical condition and level of disorientation.

"They were quite inventive in coming up with alterative activities to get people up and active," said Peck.

In allowing their residents to engage in these activities, the facility found a way to reduce falls without the use of restraints, a too-commonly-used, ineffective practice which impeded the residents' freedom to move.

"There are a lot of facilities around the country that are doing restraint reduction and are having dramatic results. These are some of the best results that I have heard about," remarked Duncan.

Before the project, 29 percent of the center's residents were held in restraints. The new program sharply cut that number to four. "And at the same time you cut the falls in more than half? That's absolutely amazing," said Duncan.

"This facility is proud of the great strides it has made in reducing restraints and, concurrently, reducing falls," stated the center in its report submitted to the Optima awards. The facility continues to utilize the accident-tracking tool as an ongoing monitoring device to help the staff identify new trends or patterns in resident falls."

"Most importantly," the report continues, "these interventions are enjoyable for the residents and provide them with a diversion, while promoting movement and fitness for residents who are capable and in need of activity."

Woodbury Center for Health Care's entire report is printed in the September issue of Nursing Homes.