In-hospital falls in a large hospital in the south of Brazil: A 6-year retrospective study.

BACKGROUND: Reporting falls in the hospital setting is a world-recognized strategy to prevent these incidents. OBJECTIVE: To describe in-hospital falls reported in a large hospital in the South of Brazil. METHOD: Retrospective, descriptive study of falls reported in the hospital's electronic reporting system. RESULTS: We analyzed 1071 fall incidents. The incidence of falls in inpatient units was 1.7 per 1000 patient days. Among the recorded falls, 95.3% occurred in patients who had been previously assessed as being at high or moderate risk of falls; 61.5% were using medications associated with increased risk of falls. Regarding age, 70.8% of the falls occurred in patients aged ≥60 years. Falls occurred mostly (72.6%) in inpatients units, and in 63.4% of the incidents the fall was witnessed by a family member/companion or a health team professionals. No injuries were recorded in 71.4% of the patients. Serious adverse events or sentinel events, such as fractures or head trauma occurred in 2.1% of the patients. Of these, 80% were in the group aged ≥60 years; 83% of the head traumas and 58% of the fractures occurred in patients who had been assessed as being at high risk of falls. Fractures were associated (p = 0.026) with age 70-79 years. CONCLUSION: At the hospital where the study was performed, new fall prevention strategies must focus on patients admitted to inpatient units, aged ≥60 years, assessed as being at high risk of falls, and using medications associated with increased risk of falls.

In hospital falls of a large hospital.

OBJECTIVES: The present database contains information on patient falls in the hospital setting. Data were collected in January 2018 with of describing in-hospital falls reported from 1st January 2012 to 31 December 2017 in a large hospital in the South of Brazil. Learning about the characteristics of these events and establishing a profile may contribute to the design of adequate prevention and improvement strategies that are effective to reduce the risk of falls. DATA DESCRIPTION: This data set encompasses 1.071 in-patients falls characterized by the follow variables: year, date, patient birth, weekday, shift, department/location of the incident, location, severity, presence of companion, age, sex, risk level, medication associated with fall risk, implemented fall prevention protocol, type of injury, reason, restraint prescription, physical therapy prescription.