Abstract
To understand how Falls/Slips (Falls) occurred at hospitals, the epidemiological aspects were explored by using incident reporting and administrative profiling data. There were 7,717 incident reports collected between 2007 and 2009 FY at a teaching hospital in Japan. They included 1,764 reports for Falls and Falls rate (FR) was 1.84/1,000 patient-days (1,000 pt･dys). Of 1,764 cases for Falls, Mean age±SD (standard deviation) were 66.9±19.2 y.o. for male (950 cases) and 69.9±19.2 y.o. for female (814 cases). FRs were 2.06 for male and 1.87/1,000 pt･dys for female.
FR in 70's (555 cases) was 2.82/1,000 pt･dys and the highest by age. With clinical services, FR of orthopedics was 1.14 and FR of cardiovascular and respiratory medicine were 1.97. FRs at internal medical services was higher than those at surgical services.
Furthermore, with respect to duration between admission and Falls, FR for the second day after admission was 0.16/1,000 pt･dys （118 cases） and the highest, 0.12 （84 cases） for the third day after admission, and 0.11 （78 cases） for the date of admission, and FR was getting lower day by day. The mean of duration was 12.4 days, and the cumulative percentage exceeded 50% on the eleventh day after admission.
Since the epidemiological characteristics of Falls are explored from the viewpoint of FR, appropriate and effective actions for patient safety are needed.
