A patient fall is an unplanned descent to the floor with or without injury to the patient. Patient falls in the hospital can occur if the patient attempts to get out of bed (for instance, to go to the bathroom) and is dizzy, weak or confused.

Falls can cause significant injury and require additional treatment. While not all patient falls are preventable, every hospital seeks to reduce or eliminate the risk of patient falls. 

About this measure

This measure tracks the number of patient falls in the hospital.

Please note: The NDNQI database is proprietary and we cannot display the comparison data, but we receive reports quarterly which indicate how our hospital compares to the database. That comparison is expressed as "observed" vs. "expected." The patient fall rate for this measure is expressed as the observed (actual) rate of patient falls compared to the expected (mean) rate of patient falls. A value of 1.0 would mean that the rate of patient falls was exactly as expected. A rate higher than 1.0 means that the rate was higher (worse) than expected, and a rate below 1.0 means that the rate was lower (better) than expected. 

Note: In this case, a lower number is better.