Physical restraint use rate and total fall and injurious fall rates: An exploratory study in two US acute care hospitals

This exploratory study used archived hospital data to investigate the relationships between the percentage of patients with physical restraints and the total fall rate as well as the injurious fall rate per 1000 patientdays. The two tested research questions were 1) What is the relationship between the restraint use rate and the total fall rate? 2) What is the relationship between the restraint use rate and the injurious fall rate? The results showed that a higher restraint use rate was associated with a higher total fall rate, yet a lower injurious fall rate in adult inpatient acute care settings. In efforts for fall and injurious fall prevention, front-line managers need to balance the frequency and appropriateness of physical restraint use with optimizing patients’ physical activity. Future research should explore the cause-effect relationship between physical restraint use and consequent injurious fall incidents.