Using Natural Language Processing to Improve Fall Documentation in VA Nursing Home Residents

Falls can be deadly for older adults, making accurate documentation essential for prevention and quality improvement. The Minimum Data Set (MDS) is used in nursing homes to document falls; however, it fails to capture fall dates and has been critiqued for underreporting and misclassification. We developed a natural language processing (NLP) algorithm to extract fall dates from electronic health records (EHRs). This study outlines the NLP algorithm development and compares its findings with the MDS to evaluate misclassification and underreporting.