Patterns and Predictors of Inpatient Falls and Fall-Related Injuries in a Large Academic Hospital

Abstract

"Patterns and predictors of inpatient falls and fall-related injuries in a large academic hospital." Infection

Preoperative Patient Education Reduces In-hospital Falls After Total Knee Arthroplasty

“…In-hospital fall rates after orthopaedic surgery are reportedly about one to three per 1000 patient days with rates as high as 16 per 1000 patient days in geriatric patients treated for hip fractures [1,4,12,18]. Consequences of these falls include morbidity for the patient and regulatory and financial liability for the institution.…”

“…Consequences of these falls include morbidity for the patient and regulatory and financial liability for the institution. For all these reasons, fall reduction has become a high priority for hospitals throughout the United States and numerous studies have been conducted to understand when and why these falls occur [2,4,10,12,15,16]. While several studies [5-8, 18, 21] have evaluated the effectiveness of particular strategies to reduce falls, the fall reduction programs that reduce falls among inpatients have frequently incorporated multimodal intervention strategies, rather than focusing on one specific variable.…”

“…Inpatient hospital falls after orthopaedic surgery represent a major problem, with rates of about one to three falls per 1000 patient days [1,4,12]. These postoperative falls represent a major source of potential morbidity for the patient, as well as regulatory and financial liability for the institution; therefore, substantial resources have been expended to understand which patients are at risk for falling and when these falls occur [2,4,10,12,15,16].…”

“…These postoperative falls represent a major source of potential morbidity for the patient, as well as regulatory and financial liability for the institution; therefore, substantial resources have been expended to understand which patients are at risk for falling and when these falls occur [2,4,10,12,15,16]. Numerous factors associated with falls have been identified, some of which are intrinsic to the patient, such as age and cognitive impairment, while other factors are related to the procedures and treatments that they undergo, such as medication side effects and muscle weakness from peripheral nerve blocks [3,9,10,13,17].…”

“…reduce the likelihood that a fall will occur through implementation of fall reduction measures [2,4,10,15,16]. While considerable work has been reported to understand why patients fall, fewer studies [5-8, 11, 18, 21] have determined whether particular strategies reduce falls.…”