Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .
Hospital falls: development of a predictive model for clinical practice.
A retrospective case-control study related to falls was conducted at an 1,120-bed acute care tertiary hospital . The case ( fall ) sample consisted of 102 falls and 236 control ( nonfall ) charts during a 1-month period . An instrument developed by Hendrich ( 1988 ) was modified for use in the study . Demographic data and risk factors were recorded . Descriptive statistics included risk factor percentages for each sample and the corresponding univariate relative risks . Logistic regression was used to develop a multivariate risk factor model with seven risk factors . The significant risk factors were recent history of falls , depression , altered elimination patterns , dizziness or vertigo , primary cancer diagnosis , confusion , and altered mobility . The adjusted relative risks were converted to risk points to be used to assess a patient 's level of fall risk . Within the data set , a sensitivity of 77 % ( 79 of 102 ) and specificity of 72 % ( 169 of 236 ) were calculated . The model was cross-vali date d in a 1987 data set with a sensitivity of 83 % ( 59 of 71 ) and specificity of 66 % ( 106 of 161 )
Heterogeneity between studies indicates that the Morse Falls Scale and STRATIFY may still be useful in particular setting s , but that widespread adoption of either is unlikely to generate benefits significantly greater than that of nursing staff clinical judgment
INTRODUCTION Fall risk screening tools are frequently used as a part of falls prevention programs in hospitals .
Design -related bias in evaluations of tool predictive accuracy could lead to overoptimistic results , which would then contribute to program failure in practice .