Falls length of stay

Description

This measure shows the average length of time spent in hospital by people admitted with an injury due to an out-of-hospital fall. This measure is calculated by dividing the total number of bed-days by the number of admissions. Improving the rehabilitation process inside hospital can reduce the time spent in a hospital bed.

Measure set

Falls and fractures

Improved recovery (hospital)

Notes about this measure set

Calculating stays
Consecutive events that together make a stay are calculated with a similar methodology to the Manatū Hauora system-level measure Acute Hospital Bed Days.
Events are considered part of the same stay if:

the NHI was the same
the previous event had a transfer end type (DA, DF, DO, DP, DT, DW or ET)
the end date of the previous event was before or within 1 day of the next event
there was an external cause code of a fall (W00–W19) that occurred either on or before the event start date.

Sub-analysis is available using the following filters:

Te Whatu Ora district
ethnicity (Māori, Pacific, Asian and Other [including unknown]).

This indicator differs from the falls indicator in the Te Tāhū Hauora Atlas of Healthcare Variation, as it counts all acute/arranged hospital admissions (stays), rather than people with more than one fall only counted once.

Numerator

The number of falls hospital bed-days for people with an injury due to a fall.

Denominator

The number of falls hospital admissions (stays) for people with an injury due to a fall.

Denominator detail

Stays included in this measure are those that:

had a public hospital admission due to a fall with injury
started with an acute or arranged event (admission type codes AA, AC, ZA or ZC)
started with an event that had an external cause code of a fall (W00–W19) that occurred either on or before the event start date.

Denominator exclusions

Stays excluded from this measure are those that:

had an unknown health district, age or gender
consisted of only non-case-mix events (EXCLU purchase unit); non-case-mix events are otherwise included as long as a case-mix event is within the stay
start with a non-acute event code (ie, excluding falls that clearly occur in hospitals, like those measured in the Te Tāhū Hauora quality and safety markers).

Additionally, total bed-days excludes:

bed-days for residential care (health speciality code D10–19, D30-39, D50–59 or D70–79)
leave days.

Responsible organisation(s)

Health Quality & Safety Commission | Te Tāhū Hauora

Data sources

National Minimum Dataset (NMDS)

Measure sets

Health areas

Falls length of stay