Hospital Falls

No single intervention has consistently solved hospital falls across broad acute and subacute patient populations. Falls are common and serious adverse events in hospital settings worldwide. Falls are the most commonly recorded safety incident in UK hospitals. Patient-level fall risk factors include age, disease, medications, mental state, cognitive impairment, and self-care ability. Inpatient falls can prolong hospitalisation, increase family and patient costs, and reduce healthcare system efficiency. Inpatient falls cause physical and psychological harm and increase NHS costs. Hospital falls can cause serious physical injury and death, especially among older people. Hospital falls are common and costly for health systems, staff, patients, and families. Older people are especially vulnerable to hospital falls and serious injury from falls. Falls without injury can still reduce confidence, activity, and independence and affect length of stay and discharge destination. Many inpatient falls occur during unmonitored daily activities rather than directly from disease.