Objective   To examine the application effect of risk management combined with precision nursing in the maintenance of physical functions and the safety management of older patients with chronic diseases and to provide the basis for the formulation of physical function maintenance and fall prevention programs for older inpatients with chronic diseases.

  Methods   The control group and the observation group were randomly selected by cluster sampling from geriatric wards of similar conditions in West China University, Sichuan University. The control group received conventional nursing care and the observation group had risk management combined with precision nursing on top of the conventional nursing care. The primary outcome indicator was activities of daily living (ADL). The secondary outcome indicators were the whole-day ambulation time and infusion time, the incidence of falls, and length-of-stay among patients.

  Results   A total of 109 patients in the control group and 110 patients in the observation group completed the study. At the time of admission, there was no statistically significant difference between the ADL scores of the two groups (P>0.05). Among the patients in the intervention group, the post-intervention ADL scores of the observation group (75.74±22.71) were higher than the pre-intervention ADL scores (68.74±17.32) and the difference was statistically significant (t=2.435, P<0.05). Among the patients in the control group, the post-intervention ADL scores of the control group (70.36±21.90) were higher than the pre-intervention ADL scores (69.14±18.29) and the difference was not statistically significant (t=0.549, P>0.05). In addition, the post-intervention ADL score of the observation group was higher than that of the control group, and the difference was statistically significant (t=2.973, P<0.05). After intervention, patients in the observation group had higher whole-day ambulation time during hospitalization (7.35±2.07) than those in the control group did (4.11±2.62), showing significant difference (t=1.508, P<0.05). The whole-day infusion time during hospitalization of the observation group (1.68±0.19) was lower than that of the control group (2.39±0.31), showing significant difference (t=−2.339, P<0.05). There was no significant difference in the incidence of falls or the length-of-stay between the two groups (P>0.05).

  Conclusion   Risk management combined with precision nursing helps improve patients' ability to perform activities of daily in older patients with chronic diseases, increase their whole-day ambulation time, and reduce the whole-day infusion time without increasing the incidence of falls, which has a positive effect on physical function maintenance and fall prevention in hospital safety management of older patients with chronic diseases.