The national rate of deaths after falls among people 65 and over increased by more than 35 percent between 2005 and 2014, according to the Journal Sentinel.
Falls are the leading cause of injury-related deaths for people 65 and older, costing Medicare more than $31 billion in 2015, according to the report.
Some areas are experiencing higher rates of deaths following falls than others. In Wisconsin, the state's elderly death rate from falls is the second highest in the country and double the national average, according to the report, though experts have not been able to pinpoint why. In 2014, 37,000 elderly people in Wisconsin went to an emergency room after a fall.
To combat what public health officials have deemed an epidemic, specialists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison have joined forces with specialists in Oregon, as well as the CDC and Verona, Wis.-based Epic Systems to build a program that helps physicians predict whether an elderly person will fall. In addition to calculating the risk, the program also guides physicians to preventive treatments for elderly patients.
"We know that over half of people who fall don't even talk to their healthcare provider about it," said Hilary Eiring, a public health policy analyst with the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, according to the report. As a result, they don't get the right treatment and their chances for falling again increase.
The screening program, called Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries, aims to increase conversations between elderly patients and their providers about the dangers of falling. The program determines if a patient is at low, moderate or high risk of falling, then steers a physician to various treatment plans, according to the report.