This indicator measures the percentage of long-term care home residents who fell during the 30 days preceding their resident assessment. Falls are the leading cause of injury for seniors and contribute to a significant burden on the health care system. Residents are at a higher risk of falling if they have a history of falls or are taking certain medications. Preventing falls increases the safety and quality of care of residents. The indicator is calculated as a rolling four quarter average. This indicator was jointly developed by interRAI and the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). A lower percentage is better.

Public reporting

Safe

Outcome

This indicator captures whether the resident fell in the last 30 days but does not capture whether the fall resulted in injury. Residents have a right to balance the risk of falls with their right to remain mobile and unrestrained; therefore, a certain number of falls are inevitable. The focus should be on reducing the number of falls, recognizing that some falls will occur, and preventing injuries associated with falls. The results for this indicator include only residents in long-stay beds. Rolling four quarter averages stabilize the rates from quarter-to-quarter variations, especially for smaller facilities, but make it more difficult to detect quarterly changes. Since residents are assessed on a quarterly basis, each resident can contribute to the indicator up to four times. Risk-adjusted values are censored if the denominator is less than 30. General limitations when using RAI-MDS 2.0 data include random error, coding errors and missing values. The COVID-19 pandemic affected many long-term care homes across Ontario, including their ability to complete assessments and/or submit data. Available data may vary by jurisdiction and facility. Results should be interpreted in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data are based on information from the mandatory Resident Assessment Instrument - Minimum Data Set (RAI-MDS) 2.0 assessment. The RAI-MDS 2.0 is a standardized assessment that is completed for each resident upon admission to a long-term care home and quarterly thereafter, by the resident’s care team, by reviewing the resident’s medical records and speaking to the resident and their family. Legacy agency Health Quality Ontario (HQO) used an evidence-informed process and expert panel, composed of Ontario-based long-term care home operators, clinicians and researchers, to produce Ontario benchmarks that represent good resident outcomes and high-quality care. The benchmark for this indicator was set at 9% by an expert panel through a modified Delphi process (2012 & 2015). Alongside public reporting performance indicators, benchmarks are an important tool for supporting long-term care homes and sector stakeholders in tracking progress, setting priorities or targets, and learning from homes that are excelling.

06/10/2025 11:04:00