Falls Prevention and QI Reporting in Aged Care

A falls record has several jobs to do: support the person’s immediate care, help the team understand what happened, and contribute to accurate quality reporting. Those jobs need a clear handover between clinical staff, incident reviewers and the people preparing the quarterly return.

This guide explains the reporting distinctions and offers practical demonstration questions for residential aged care providers. Reviewed 25 September 2026.

The mandatory falls indicator is not a count of fall events per 1,000 occupied bed days. Under section 166-135 of the Aged Care Rules, the quarterly return includes the number of people whose records were assessed, those excluded because they were absent throughout the period, those who experienced one or more falls at the home, and those who experienced one or more falls resulting in major injury.

For example, three falls involving one resident contribute one person to the falls count. Retain all three incident records for clinical review. An internal event-rate dashboard can be useful, but it cannot replace the required person-based reporting.

The QI Program Manual, Part A describes the percentage measures and collection rules. Its major-injury definition covers bone fractures, joint dislocations, closed head injuries with altered consciousness and subdural haematoma. A hospital transfer alone does not establish that definition. Check the current manual when classifying records.

Use the 2025 national falls guidelines for residential aged care to guide clinical assessment and prevention. They support an individual approach involving the older person, assessment of contributing risks and appropriate interventions.

For a software evaluation, follow one fictional resident through the process. Ask the team to show where assessment findings are recorded, how agreed actions reach the care plan, who owns follow-up and how staff find the current plan at handover. Check what happens after a change in condition or a further fall.

An assessment score is only one part of that conversation. A convincing demonstration should make the next action and its owner clear, without implying that software selects the right clinical intervention on its own.

After a fall, follow your clinical response and escalation procedures. The national guidelines address immediate post-fall care, assessment, monitoring and review. This guide is not a substitute for those clinical procedures.

A fall with injury is not automatically a SIRS-reportable incident. Review whether the circumstances fall within a reportable incident type, such as suspected neglect, then assess priority and the applicable notification clock. The QI major-injury definition and SIRS reportability serve different purposes. Our SIRS reporting guide explains the distinction and links to current requirements.

In your operating process, identify who reviews reportability, who completes any external notification and where its reference is retained. The clinical record, internal incident review and external submission should each have a clear owner.

Before signing off a quarter, reconcile the reporting population, exclusions, repeated falls involving the same person and injury classifications. Investigate missing or inconsistent records before relying on the result. Keep the calculation basis and approval evidence available for another team member to review.

Discuss the pattern behind the number as well: repeated incidents, locations, handover gaps and outstanding actions. Agree what your team will change and when it will review the outcome. Avoid attributing a change in a small sample to a single intervention without clinical review.

Use a fictional resident with two falls in the same quarter, one requiring further injury review. Start with the clinical workflow, then follow the incident review and quality-indicator reporting stages.

Statura’s QI interface presents indicator results, validation information and available benchmark and trend labels. Your team still needs to review source completeness and classification. GPMS lodgement is an external step; Statura records the completed submission reference.

Ask the presenter to demonstrate how each record contributes to the result, where a person reviews a decision and which handovers require action. Include an incomplete record so you can see how an exception is handled. Book a tailored demonstration and bring the reporting questions your clinical and quality teams need answered.