Costs Attributable to Falls Based on Diagnosis-Related Groups (DRGs) Analysis of Hospitalised Patients: A Case-Control Study

Bacground/objetives: Falls are the most common adverse events in hospitals. The aim was to analyse Diagnosis-Related Groups and their associated relative weight as an esti-mator of resource consumption and costs in hospitalised patients who sustained a fall, compared with a control group of non-fallers, in order to identify the excess costs at-tributable to a fall. Methods: Case-control study. Cases included patients who had sus-tained a fall during hospitalisation between 2020-2022 in 19 inpatient units. Controls were selected with matching technique based on age and admission period. Diagno-sis-Related Groups and their resource consumption and cost estimators (relative weights) were provided by the Hospital’s Coding Unit. Results: A total of 613 falls were analysed against 623 controls. The Diagnosis-Related Group ‘Lower limb amputation except toes’ was associated with a fourfold higher risk of falling compared to others. Five more were identi-fied in which the case group incurred significantly higher costs than the control group. These included three surgical Diagnosis-Related Group, ’Urethral and transurethral proce-dures’, ‘Heart valve procedures without acute myocardial infarction or complex diagnosis, and ‘Arterial procedures on the lower limb’, and two medical, ’Heart failure’ and ‘Major pulmonary infections and inflammations’. Conclusions/Implications for practice. Identifying Diagno-sis-Related Groups in which falls are associated with increased hospitalisation costs al-lows for a comprehensive assessment of the process, taking into account resource con-sumption and the clinical characteristics of hospitalised patients. These findings will en-able nurses to develop targeted strategies to enhance the safety of hospitalised patients that contribute to the sustainability of the healthcare system.