Factors related to Fall incidents in Long-term Care Hospitals

Objectives This study aimed to identify factors that influence the risk of falls in the long-term care hospital, and provide basic data for the development of a fall prevention program. Methods This is a secondary analysis study that analyzed a total of 2,906 cases using fall incident data from long-term care hospitals in the 2021 and 2022 patient safety reporting data. Descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and multinomial logistic regression analysis were performed using SPSS 26.0 program. Results Among the fall incidents, 24.9%(724)were near misses, 39.7%(1,152) were adverse events, and 35.4% (1,030) were sentinel events. The degree of harm of falls in long-term care hospitals showed significant differences in the gender, location where safety incident occured, and bed size. In addition, adverse events was associated with rehabilitation⋅physical theraphy room, resting area and factors affecting sentinel events were gender and shower room. Conclusions In order to improve patient safety in long-term care hospitals, the fall prevention system and physical environment should be continuously improved. In addition, there is a need to develop a differential fall prevention education programs at the organizational level and conduct periodic education for employees and in hospital patients.