[Geriatric in-hospital patients: falls and their consequences]

There is a high incidence of falls for geriatric in-hospital patients, but a lack of knowledge about the consequences of those falls. The aim was to describe the injurious consequences of falls and their localisation, and the effect of falls on the length of hospital stay.

We analyzed the data of a standardized protocol for every fall in 2003 as well as the data of the hospital information system (KIS).

We found 345 patients who fell ("fallers") (total falls: 506) and 1763 patients who did not fall ("non-fallers"). Injuries or pain are the consequences in 37.2% of the falls. Only 5 patients (1.4%) suffered a fracture. Differences between fallers were seen in "length of hospital stay" (28.8 days vs 19.5 days), ("female") (61.4% vs 69.4%) and "barthel index" (40.2 vs 48.5 score points).

Falls are an indicator for a complicated treatment, because fallers have a longer hospital stay. To prevent consequences of falls is just as important as to prevent falls.