Characteristics and associated factors in patient falls, and effectiveness of the lower height of beds for the prevention of bed falls in an acute geriatric hospital.

Objectives: Whereas several studies about patient falls have provided data for long-term healthcare institutions, less information is available for acute care centres. The objective was to analyze the characteristics of the patient falls and associated factors, and the effectiveness of the lower beds' height to reduce the frequency and the harms of the patient falls in an acute geriatric hospital.

Methods: A descriptive and retrospective study using a mandatory safety incident report, the IHI Global Trigger Tool, and the claims related to patient falls between 2007 and 2011 in a 200-bed university-associated geriatric hospital.

Results: The falls rate was 5.4 falls per 1000 patient days (1.3% of falls led to fractures) and there was exitus in 6 patients (0.6%). Nearly half of the falls ocurred during the night shift (42.4%). By wards, falls were more frequent in acute geriatric wards (42.9%). A 7.5% of patients had a fall before admission. 3 (0.2%) claims due to possible clinical negligence were found. A reduction (28.3%) of bed falls with the lower height of the bed and a 1.88 times less falls with harm (RR 0.53; CI 95% 0.83-0.34) (p=0.006) was observed.

Conclusion: The prevention of patient falls is an important task in geriatric units with a potential reduction of harms and costs, some measures such as the lower height of the bed showed a significant reduction of the falls.