Engelsk titel: Characteristics of patient falls in hospitals
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Författare:
Östensvik E
Email: elisabeth.ostensvik@akribe.no
Språk: Nor
Antal referenser: 48
Dokumenttyp:
Artikel
UI-nummer: 07103415
Sammanfattning
Background: Patient falls are the
most reported adverse event in
hospitals.Risk factors reported in
studies are age, mental status,
impaired mobility, toilet needs
and environmental factors. Patient
falls increase the risk of complications
and can lead to potential
litigation.
Aim: The aim of this paper is to
report a study of characteristics
of patient falls in a hospital in
Norway.
Methods: A retrospective study of
295 fall incident reports was performed
in a 566-bed hospital in
Norway. Information gathered
included age, gender, time of day,
patient characteristics, activity,
environmental factors, and injury.
Results: The fall rate was 1.8 per
1000 bed days. Falls at night
were significantly higher compared
to falls during the day or the
evening (p <0.001). Patients
(aged 70 and higher) represented
77 % of all falls. At the time of
falling, 24 % of the patients were
disoriented, 40 % had impaired
mobility, and 37 % had toilet
needs. The most common activity
when falling was walking (45 %)
and falling out of bed (40 %).
Physical environmental factors
were included in 19 % of all falls.
Serious injury represented 8 % of
all falls.
Conclusion: Patient falls are a
multifactoral problem. Analyzing
incident reports about falls can
highlight the problem and detect
patterns and characteristics of
patient falls in hospitals.