Effectiveness of Built-in Bathroom Facilities in Reducing Inpatient Falls from an Acute Care Setting

Background: Built-in bathroom facilities located within patients’ room were identified as a strategy to reduce inpatient falls. However, the relationship between having built-in bathrooms and falls incidence has not been examined. Purpose: To explore whether built-in bathrooms within an acute multi-bedded hospital room setting will reduce falls incidence among adult patients as compared to those sharing a separate bathroom situated outside their rooms. Method: A pre-and-post study involving a single group comparison of three-time phases was conducted. Results: Presence of built-in bathrooms in multi-bedded hospital room settings was not statistically significant in reducing falls, p>0.05. Conclusions: Built-in bathrooms had shortened the distance from the bathroom to patients’ bed, but it did not reduce falls incidence significantly. Other fall preventive measures such as reminding patients to seek assistance before ambulating and installation of handrails linking from the bed to the built-in bathrooms may be required in order to reduce fall incidence.