Analysis of Inpatient Hospital Falls with Serious Injury

Abstract

Fall-related serious injuries pose risks to patients and healthcare organizations. This retrospective, single-hospital study used a 38 variable instrument to understand characteristics of those who sustained a fall with serious injury. Analyses included descriptive statistics, frequency, and Chi-square tests of associations between key variables and outcomes of moderate versus major injury. Age range 25–91 years, predominantly 60–69 years (23.3%), and mostly male (50.9%). Highest percentage occurred between 0:00 and 06:59 (39.6%), and on Oncology service (28.3%). Fallers were in the room, (81.1%), sustained major injury (73.6%), fractured a major bone (43.4%), had altered mobility prior to the fall (67.9%), and had received at least one narcotic dose within 24 hours before the fall (43.2%). The associations between injury severity and age, gender, altered mobility, fall risk assessment pre-fall, and unit service line are not statistically significant, however have small-to-moderate clinical significance. This study adds to the literature in identifying characteristics of patients who sustain a fall-related serious injury.