[Light background music] [Logo animates to text reading, “QI Hub”] [Video title animates reading, “Presents: Impact Effort Matrix”] Imagine you are part of a team tasked with solving a critical problem, like preventing patient falls in a busy hospital. [Animation: A patient falls in a hospital setting.] [On-screen text: Potential Underlying Causes: Lack of staff; Monitoring procedures; Misplaced objects; Signage.] Your team has found some root causes and identified several interventions that might help. But here's the catch: your team is now feeling overwhelmed with all the ideas and not sure which to try first. That's when an Impact Effort Matrix brainstorming tool can help guide your team. [On-screen graphic: Impact Effort Matrix examples showing Impact on the vertical axis from Low to High and Effort on the horizontal axis from Low to High.] An Impact Effort Matrix is often a 2x2 table with effort on one axis and impact on the other axis. Depending on the situation, it can have more quadrants as shown here. Effort refers to the resources needed to address the problem. Impact describes how the solution will affect the people and processes around this problem. [On-screen graphic: Balance scale displayed within an Impact Effort Matrix illustrating the relationship between effort and impact.] To use the Impact Effort Matrix, you will follow a few steps to help choose a solution that gives the right balance between effort to implement and impact on those affected. First, search the literature and talk with those involved in the process to identify several possible solutions. Next, discuss where to place each solution on the matrix based on resources available and the team's capacity to implement. Once all solutions have been placed on the matrix, the team can decide which solutions may be pursued in the short term and which may be pursued in the long term, or not at all. [On-screen text: Solutions to pursue: short-term; long-term; not at all.] In most cases, solutions that require low effort to implement and will have a high impact on those affected are implemented first. Let's apply it to your team's current problem. You've been asked to recommend interventions that could help decrease the rate of falls in your unit. Your team has already identified some root causes for the increased rate of falls. These include staff turnover and budget constraints on hiring. Your team decides to use an Impact Effort Matrix to prioritize solutions. [On-screen text: Impact Effort Matrix quadrant labels: Low effort, High impact; High effort, High impact; Low effort, Low impact; High effort, Low impact.] After searching the fall prevention literature and talking with those involved in the process, your team identifies solutions such as holding a one-time seminar for staff to increase awareness of the problem and teach about best practices for preventing falls, increasing funding for hiring and retaining nursing staff, creating a process that ensures patient beds are set to the correct height, and creating a patient video that explains fall risks and encourages them to call for help before getting up, shown as part of the welcome process. Based on the four ideas proposed and your team's expertise, your team creates a 2x2 matrix with effort on the horizontal axis and impact on the vertical axis. You determine to place the one-time seminar solution in the high effort and low impact area of the matrix. The team considered it high effort because it will be difficult to release all staff from their duties without affecting care delivery. The team identified it as low impact because while a one-time seminar may provide a valuable educational opportunity, without additional follow-up there isn't a way to ensure the information learned is retained. Adjusting bed height is placed in the low effort, low impact area of the matrix. This solution is considered low effort because it is a relatively low-cost intervention and is easy to incorporate into existing workflows. It is determined as low impact, however, because it may not reduce the likelihood a patient will fall. Rather, it would likely only reduce the probability of severe injury from a fall. Increased funding for the hiring and retention of staff is placed in the high effort, high impact area of the matrix. This intervention has the potential for high impact because it directly addresses a root cause of the problem. However, this requires financial planning at an institutional level that may be difficult to carry out due to constraints and approvals needed. Your team discusses that as this intervention is high impact and high effort, it should likely be pursued in the medium to long term. Lastly, the creation of a short patient video to reinforce safety behaviors for fall prevention is placed in the high impact, low effort area of the matrix. Your hospital has a team who creates patient education videos which are shown in their rooms after arrival as part of the welcome process. The short video would explain fall risks and encourage patients to call for help before getting up. Your team identifies this as low effort because the resources to create it already exist, it can be reused with minimal staff time, and is easily worked into the existing workflow. Additionally, it is considered high impact because it engages patients directly. This can be critical as many falls happen when patients act independently. Your team discusses that as this intervention is high impact and low effort, it should likely be one of the first to implement. In summary, the Impact Effort Matrix allows a team to consider the amount of effort to implement an intervention and its expected impact on those affected by the problem. This makes it easier for teams to decide which interventions to prioritize as they tackle their specific problem. [Light background music] [QI Hub logo appears] [On-screen text: Thank you! Scan the QR code for references and resources.] [QR code links to: https://go.osu.edu/qihub] [Logos: The Ohio State University College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.]