Increasing Awareness of the Factors Producing Falls: The Mini Falls Assessment

Falls represent one of the most common harmful occurrences in nursing homes, and injurious falls account for approximately 60% of all liability cases filed against nursing homes. Persons in nursing homes fall three times more frequently than persons living in the community. There are approximately 1.7 (0.6–3.6) falls per nursing home bed per year.³ Falls are the major cause of hip fractures, head trauma, lacerations, other fractures, and soft tissue injuries. As we age, falls are inevitable; therefore, our goals are to decrease the number of falls and prevent injuries where possible. Among nursing home residents, rates of hip fracture can be as high as 6.2% in women and 4.9% in men.⁴ The cost of falls in the United States is estimated to be $40 billion by 2020.⁵ Although single intervention programs have minor effects on falls, the Cochrane review has found that multifactorial interventions successfully reduce falls. Despite this, certified nursing aides believe that falls are not preventable.⁸