When elders leave hospital, falls are big reason they return

(Reuters Health) - Preventing falls among elderly patients who’ve just left the hospital is an important part of keeping them safe, a large U.S. study shows.

When elderly patients are discharged, one of the major reasons they end up back in the hospital is that they’ve suffered a fall, researchers found.

“Hospitals spend a lot of time thinking about fall risk while the patient is in the hospital, but there’s much less attention to the patient after discharge,” said principal investigator Geoffrey Hoffman of the University of Michigan School of Nursing.

Fall prevention efforts need to continue as the patient moves from the hospital to home, or elsewhere, he said.

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