Title

Determinants of hospital fall rate trajectory groups: A longitudinal assessment of nurse staffing and organizational characteristics

Authors

Authors

D. Everhart; J. R. Schumacher; R. P. Duncan; A. G. Hall; D. F. Neff;R. I. Shorr

Comments

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Abbreviated Journal Title

Health Care Manage. Rev.

Keywords

Hospitals; magnet status; nursing staffing; patient falls; PATIENT FALLS; DEVELOPMENTAL TRAJECTORIES; PREVENTING FALLS; ACUTE-CARE; OUTCOMES; QUALITY; METAANALYSIS; ASSOCIATION; INJURIES; SAFETY; Health Policy & Services

Abstract

Background: Patient falls in acute care hospitals represent a significant patient safety concern. Although cross-sectional studies have shown that fall rates vary widely between acute care hospitals, it is not clear whether hospital fall rates remain consistent over time. Purpose: The aim of this study as to determine whether hospitals can be categorized into fall rate trajectory groups over time and to identify nurse staffing and hospital characteristics associated with hospital fall rate trajectory groups. Methodology/Approach: We conducted a 54-month (July 2006-December 2010) longitudinal study of U.S. acute care general hospitals participating in the National Database for Nursing Quality Indicators A (2007). We used latent class growth modeling to categorize hospitals into groups based on their long-term fall rates. Nurse staffing and hospital characteristics associated with membership in the highest hospital fall rate group were identified using logistic regression. Findings: A sample of 1,529 hospitals (mean fall rate of 3.65 per 1,000 patient days) contributed data to the analysis. Latent class growth modeling findings classified hospital into three groups based on fall rate trajectories: consistently high (mean fall rate of 4.96 per 1,000 patient days), consistently medium (mean fall rate of 3.63 per 1,000 patient days), and consistently low (mean fall rate of 2.50 per 1,000 patient days). Hospitals with higher total nurse staffing (odds ratio [OR] = 0.92, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.85, 0.99]), Magnet status (OR = 0.49, 95% CI [0.35, 0.70]), and bed size greater than 300 beds (OR = 0.70,95% CI [0.51, 0.94]) were significantly less likely to be categorized in the "consistently high" fall rate group.

Journal Title

Health Care Management Review

Volume

39

Issue/Number

4

Publication Date

1-1-2014

Document Type

Article

Language

English

First Page

352

Last Page

360

WOS Identifier

WOS:000341965900009

ISSN

0361-6274

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