Falls Incidence Compared Between a Multibedded Ward Hospital and a 100% Single-Occupancy Room Hospital: An Uncontrolled Before-After Study.

backgroundSingle-occupancy patient rooms in hospitals have become popular because of the privacy they offer. A downside, however, is the lack of social control from other patients, which might increase the risk of falls and undetected delirium.

aimTo study whether the incidence of falls in single-occupancy patient rooms differs from that in multibedded patient rooms. Secondary aims were to establish differences in the context of falls and differences in delirium incidence.

methodsAn uncontrolled observational before-after study was performed during 16 months before and 16 after moving to a hospital with 100% single-occupancy patient rooms. Fall data were retrieved from the hospital incident reporting system. The Delirium Observation Screening Scale (DOSS) was retrieved from the hospital electronic patient data system. Main outcomes were the number of falls per 1,000 patient days, assessed with a Poisson regression analysis, and delirium incidence in fallers.

resultsThe incidence of falls was not significantly different between the before period (1.39 falls/1,000 patient days) and the after period (1.38 falls/1,000 patient days;

conclusionsIn this study, we observed no change in incidence of falls after moving to a hospital with 100% single-occupancy bed rooms.