Background:

Falls in hospital settings are frequent adverse events, with medications contributing significantly.

Objective:

To analyze inpatient fall notifications and characterize fall risk with a focus on drug therapy by applying the Medication Fall Risk Score.

Methodology:

An observational, descriptive, and retrospective study was conducted in a Portuguese hospital center. The Medication Fall Risk Score was applied to a sample of 183 patient fall notifications in the first quarter of 2021.

Results:

The Medication Fall Risk Score identified 60.6% of patients with "yes" for high fall risk. Regarding fall risk assessment recorded in the notifications using another scale, 65.8% of patients were classified as "low risk" or "no risk." Of these, 53.9% were classified as "yes" for high risk using the Medication Fall Risk Score.

Conclusion:

The Medication Fall Risk Score may help to improve the detection of patients at "high risk" of falling, allowing safer medication practices for fall prevention.

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