Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2023 Jan;16(1):131-141.
doi: 10.1177/19375867221123607. Epub 2022 Sep 7.

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

Fozia Hussain  1 , Monique van Dijk  1 , Christian Oudshoorn  2 , Erwin Ista  1
Affiliations

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

Fozia Hussain et al. HERD. 2023 Jan.

Abstract

Background: Single-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.

Aim: To 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.

Methods: An 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.

Results: The 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; p = .924). In the after period, falls in the bathroom were significantly more frequent than in the before period, respectively, 17.2% and 9.4% (p = .003). In both periods, one quarter of the patients who fell had been assessed for delirium. In the before period, 57/73 (78%) of those were suspected for delirium (DOSS ≥ 3) versus 37/55 (67%) in the after period (p = .225).

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

Keywords: delirium; falls; incident reporting; single rooms.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Floor plan of a ward in the former building.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Floor plan of a ward in the new building.
Figure 3.
Figure 3.
Reported mean numbers of falls per 1,000 patient days per 2 months in former and new clinic.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Babine R. L., Hyrkäs K. E., Hallen S., Wierman H. R., Bachand D. A., Chapman J. L., Fuller V. J. (2018). Falls and delirium in an acute care setting: A retrospective chart review before and after an organisation-wide interprofessional education. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(7-8), e1429–e1441. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jocn.14259 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blandfort S., Gregersen M., Rahbek K., Juul S., Damsgaard E. M. (2020. a). Analgesic and psychoactive medications and the risk of falls in relation to delirium in single-bed rooms compared to multiple-bed rooms in geriatric inpatients. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 32(8), 1493–1499. 10.1007/s40520-019-01335-y - DOI - PubMed
    1. Blandfort S., Gregersen M., Rahbek K., Juul S., Damsgaard E. M. (2020. b). Single-bed rooms in a geriatric ward prevent delirium in older patients. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research, 32(1), 141–147. 10.1007/s40520-019-01173-y - DOI - PubMed
    1. Caruso P., Guardian L., Tiengo T., dos Santos L. S., Junior P. M. (2014). ICU architectural design affects the delirium prevalence: A comparison between single-bed and multibed rooms. Critical Care Medicine, 42(10), 2204–2210. - PubMed
    1. Davis M., Elliott R., Hills R., Fry M. (2019). Single-room ward design and its impact on service and patient outcomes: An evaluation study. Orthopaedic Nursing, 38(5), 317–325. - PubMed