Table 3

Summary of hospital characteristics for in-hospital falls (IHF) and fall-related fractures (FRFx) between 1 July 1998 and 30 June 2008

Characteristic	Total episodes N=3344588		IHF episodes N=21250		Row percentage	FRFx episodes N=3732		Row percentage (of IHF)
Characteristic	N	Percentage	N	Percentage	Row percentage	N	Percentage	Row percentage (of IHF)
Emergency admission	1751778	52.4	11397	53.6	0.7	1659	44.5	14.6^†
Care type
Acute and newborn^‡	2913988	87.1	13787	64.9	0.50	1953	52.3	14.2^†
Palliative	39931	1.2	647	3.0	1.6	123	3.3	19.0
Geriatric	93542	2.8	3061	14.4	3.3	759	20.3	24.8^*
Mental and ETOH	145752	4.4	791	3.7	0.5	218	5.8	27.6^*
Rehab	127538	3.8	2181	10.3	1.7	528	14.2	24.2^*
Interim care^§	9865	0.3	169	0.8	1.7	24	0.6	14.2
Interim care—nursing^§ home type	14799	0.4	614	2.9	4.2	127	3.4	20.7
Admission source
Home	1451945	43.4	7741	36.4	0.5	996	26.7	12.9^†
Transfer	346474	10.4	5216	24.1	1.5^*	1101	29.5	21.5^*
Other	1546996	46.2	8383	39.5	0.5	1635	43.8	19.5^*
Teaching hospital	1941541	58.5	11349	53.7	0.6^†	1769	47.5	15.6^†
Previous separation with fall^¶	599692	17.9	6518	30.7	1.1^*	1250	33.5	19.3

↵* Higher prevalence of IHF or FRFx.
↵† Lower prevalence of IHF or FRFx associated with variable, assessed using uni-variate statistical analysis, p≤0.001.
↵‡ Acute and Newborn care type includes all acute hospital admissions other than those specified. For this analysis, only persons 18 years or more are included in the analysis.
↵§ There are two types of interim care; those where persons have already been designed nursing home type (35 days of continuous care, assessed by aged care assessment service) and those without such a designation.
↵¶ Either a previous presenting fall or an in-hospital fall hospital episode. EOH, alcohol related conditions.