The height of occupied patient beds can be an overlooked contributor to inpatient falls. Hospital bed frames are still eight–12 inches higher than those of home bedframes. The difference in heights may contribute to inpatient falls related to getting in and out of bed and to the severity of fall-related injuries. Better physical design of hospital equipment such as patient beds may reduce patient falls and injuries.
The aim of this study was to ascertain the average height of occupied patient beds in a general medical ward and to investigate the relationship between staff working height for patient beds, time, and whether the patient was on fall precaution.
This study was conducted in a 32-bed, acute medical ward of a Michigan medical center. One researcher collected all of the inpatient falls data using the same metric for all the measurements. Univariate analyses were performed.
The average staff working-height measurement taken at the weekend was significantly higher than that taken on weekdays. The average bed height of patient beds that were on fall precaution was significantly higher than those that were not on fall precaution. Statistically significant difference was found on the staff working-height measurements across different times; the average height during the weekday afternoon time points was the highest. No difference was found between the groups on fall precaution.
The small sample size limits the generalizability of the outcomes. Further, the Hawthorne effect may have influenced the height at which staff positioned and left beds.