Characteristics of patients experiencing falls during rehabilitation: an incident report-based study

Abstract

Objective: To identify characteristics of patients who experienced documented falls during rehabilitation and the circum stances leading to falls during gait practice. Methods: Information from patients who experienced documented falls during rehabilitation between April 1, 2016, and August 31, 2020, was reviewed for age, department, attending therapist’s years of experience, and the content of rehabilitation. For cases of falls during gait rehabilitation, the direction and cause of the fall, and the method of assistance was investigated. Results: There were 124 documented falls among 37,308 rehabilitation prescriptions, among 438,593.7 rehabilitation time (hour). The rate of falls was 0.43 / 1,000 person-hour and 0.25 / 1,000 person-hour for patients < 65 and ≥ 65 years of age, respectively. The rate of falls was highest among hematology/oncology patients (0.47 / 1,000 person-hour) and attending therapists with ≤ 3 years’ experience (0.37 / 1,000 person-hour). Among patients who experienced a fall during gait rehabilitation, forward direction, stumbling, and supervised falls were more common. Conclusions: The incidence of falls during rehabilitation was the younger group than older groups, higher among hema tology/oncology patients, and higher when therapists had less experience. The data suggested that among patients who fell, more stumbled and fell forward during supervised gait rehabilitation practice.