Quality and Safety in Health Care is embarking on an initiative to publish abstracts from selected meetings where successful reports of healthcare improvement have been presented. We begin with abstract reports from the Thirteenth International Scientific Symposium on Improving Quality and Value in Healthcare, which occurred at the IHI Forum in Orlando, Florida, on 10 December 2007. Since 2005, the Annual Scientific Symposium has been organised and hosted by the Academy for Health Care Improvement (a4hc.org). The authors of these successful reports were invited to revise their initial abstracts using the journal’s guidelines for either quality improvement reports¹ or quality improvement research.²QSHC will publish abstracts of presentations from the April 2008 International Forum on Quality and Safety in Health Care, in Paris, in a forthcoming supplement to the journal.

David P Stevens, QSHC Editor

References

1. Moss F, Thomson RG. A new structure for quality improvement reports. Qual Saf Health Care 2004;13:6–7.

2. Davidoff F, Batalden P. Toward stronger evidence on quality improvement. Draft publication guidelines: the beginning of a consensus project. Qual Saf Health Care 2005;14:319–25.

REDUCING NURSING HOME FALLS: RESULTS OF A QUALITY IMPROVEMENT CONSORTIUM

R. H. Lee, V. Coffland, A. Becker, B. Gajewski, S. Thompson. University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas, USA

Background: Falls in nursing homes are common, and many falls result in injuries or death. So, reducing falls and injuries from falls is a priority. Yet improving falls management in nursing homes remains a challenge.

Purpose of the study: Despite successes elsewhere, the effectiveness of Quality Improvement Consortia (QIC) in nursing homes has not been demonstrated. This QIC sought to reduce fall rates and identify barriers to improvement.

Methods: After institutional review board (IRB) approval, 10 of 46 volunteer nursing homes were randomly chosen as participants and 10 were chosen as controls. An initial session allowed members to …