Falls in hospital, 2011/12 to 2020/21: An overview of fall-related injuries that occurred during hospital admission in Victoria. (Hazard Edition 92)

This edition of Hazard focused on falls that occur during hospital admission in Victoria. Falls that occur in hospital and result in patient harm are relatively common, with a rate of 3.6 falls per 1000 separations in 2017/18, Australia, reported by the AIHW [1]: more than 40,000 hospital falls.

The aim of this edition of Hazard is to provide an in-depth epidemiological overview of recorded falls during hospital admission in Victoria, including frequencies, rates and trends. Time trends in the ten-year period from 2011/12 to 2020/21 are presented, as well as an analysis of the types of falls and the injuries resulting from falls that occur during hospital admission in the three-year period from 2018/19 to 2020/21. All hospital falls are included: some of these did not result in recorded injuries.

The data source for this report was the Victorian Admitted Episodes Dataset (VAED), which was sourced from the Victorian Department of Health. The VAED was used to identify and select hospital admissions with a fall during hospital stay, as well as providing the ‘exposure data’: all hospital admissions in Victoria for the duration of the study period.