Fall‑Related Injuries and Their Prevention Strategies of In‑Patient Population in Tertiary Health Care Setup

Abstract

Introduction: In‑hospital falls are one of the major causes of morbidity and rarely mortality in India. Most horrible part is most of the times these are considered as “never happened events” and they are never recorded and recognised. Till now, there are only few documented studies, especially in the Indian setup regarding the study of fall‑related injuries in hospital. Aim: The main aim of this study is the documentation and interpretation of context and characteristics of fall and fall‑related injuries. Using internal communication system, in‑built software, falls and fall‑related injuries were documented. An extensive search was made to find out time and cause for the fall‑ and fall‑related injuries. Many inbuilt programs were made to prevent and reduce fall‑ and fall‑related injuries. Results: Most of falls and fall‑related injuries occurred during the night and early morning times in wash rooms and toilets. Elderly people (60–89 years) and males had more incidence of falls compared to other age groups and females respectively. Conclusion: Falls and fall‑related injuries in hospital can lead to significant secondary complications for individual patients. Since they are easily preventable, they represent an attractive target to increase the quality of care and lower the cost of overall medical treatment.