Case Study: Sentara Healthcare achieves a 78% reduction in patient falls and an 85% reduction in fall-related injuries with CipherHealth's Orchid

Orchid: Sentara Fall Prevention Ensuring patient safety with rounding

Sentara Healthcare, a 13-hospital system in the mid-Atlantic (including a 183-bed urban hospital), set a 2014 goal to reduce preventable patient falls and fall-related injuries. Sentara had already implemented CipherHealth’s Orchid rounding application and sought to expand its use to better identify and mitigate fall risks across units.

Working with CipherHealth, Sentara nurse managers created a structured Orchid rounding script for environmental assessments, automatic alerts when fall-prevention measures (e.g., yellow armbands, fall mats) were missing, and patient fall-risk flagging. After 1,393 rounds and 118 interventions, the program reduced total falls by 78% (2.03 → 0.62/1,000 patient days) and falls with injury by 85% (0.44 → 0.09/1,000 patient days), prompting systemwide expansion.

Sentara Healthcare