The role of national audit in inpatient falls prevention

ByJulie Whitney

Published21 April 2025

How can analysing the data behind inpatient falls help us learn how to manage the risk to patients - and the medico-legal implications for doctors?

Even without sustaining injury, inpatient falls lead to decreased confidence, deterioration in function and longer length of stay, and can be very distressing for the patient, their families and ward staff...

Components of the multi-factorial assessment to optimise safe activity (MASA). KPI 1 is the proportion of patients with a high-quality MASA (five or more of these assessments documented). In 2023, 39% of patients had a high-quality MASA. Figure taken from the NAIF 2024 Annual Report. Figure taken from the NAIF 2024 Annual Report.

KPIs 2, 3 and 4 illustrating performance in check for injury, safe method for moving from the floor and medical assessment within 30 minutes. Figure taken from the NAIF 2024 Annual Report.

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Effective post-fall management hinges on the check for injury being accurate, as many of the subsequent actions rely on this.

Julie Whitney

Julie Whitney is an academic physiotherapist with an interest in fall prevention. She is the clinical lead for the National Audit of Inpatient Falls (NAIF). In addition, she works clinically at King's College Hospital falls clinic and has conducted a range of observational studies, trials and evidence syntheses on fall prevention. Julie is one of the members of the NICE guidelines committee for the new falls guidelines to be published in 2025.