I received many queries from people wanting to know what I found
out about benchmarking patient falls, and very few responses from
people with suggestions.  I would like to thank those who did
write--the general consensus is that patient fall data is hard
to come by and there is no centralized agency or organization
collecting this data, so benchmarking is not an easy process.
Someone suggested looking at books related to geriatrics and
aging.  The best article I found was a one pager from Nursing Quality
Connection, 1995 Mar-Apr; 4(5):5, by P. Schroeer, "Benchmarking
Patient Falls."  It was a collection of responses from nurses as
to how they benchmarked falls--and again there wasn't much data
from outside their own institutions to go on, but they have ideas
as to what should be tracked within institutions.  Hope this helps.
Margaret Almon
Medical Library
Montgomery Hospital
Norristown, PA