[In-hospital accidental falls: a reality].
OBJECTIVE
To describe the patients who suffer falls in our center and test the sensibility of risk factors currently defined in order to correctly identify them and apply corrective measures.


METHODS
We studied the falls which occurred between March 1996and May 1998. The authors analyze the circumstances of the fall as well as the characteristics of those patients who suffered these falls. In the case of patients who suffered more than one fall, we analyzed just the first one.


RESULTS
The 12,894 patients registered in this hospital during that time period  suffered 192 falls, involving 171 patients. The risk increases with age. The majority occurred in patients who are registered for rehabilitation after having a vascular cerebral acccident.


CONCLUSIONS
the defined risk factors are sufficient enough to identify patients at risk, but we should include rehabilitation patients as such. The quantity of countermeasures installed to prevent falls and their high degree of announcement contrasts with the poor identification of those patients considered at risk; we should modify this system of identification. It is necessary to include relatives in the prevention of falls. This information shall be divulged to the all other hospital sections.
Hospital  de l'Esperança, Institut Municipal d'Assistència Sanitària (IMAS),Barcelona.
M
M
Calvo Mesa
M
M
Riu Camps
M J
MJ
Villares García
D000056:Accident Prevention; D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006760:Hospitalization; D006761:Hospitals; D006801:Humans; D009738:Nursing Service, Hospital; D012307:Risk Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology