Patients' falls and injuries during hospitalization as quality indicators of work in hospitals

The number of patients' falls and injuries happening during their hospital treatment is a good quality indicator of safety of in-patients. A fall is of multifactorial etiology, and its causes are usually classified into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. According to Jenise Morse there are three categories of falls among inpatients: accidental, non-anticipated physiologic and anticipated physiologic fall. Fall induced injuries in clinical and hospital settings are mostly categorized into five groups: no injury, minor injury, moderate injury, severe injury and lethal injury. The number of in-patient falls can be reduced by implementing a prevention programme in order to improve the quality of the specific health care and health care in general. The key preventive strategies aimed at safe and efficient health care include: a regular assessment of the risk for falls using predictive scales, visual identification of patients at high risk for falls, communication with patients and education of patients, their family members and staff about fall prevention interventions.