Abstract: Objective: To understand the impact of injurious falls on the length of stay and medical expenses of hospitalized patients and to provide a reference for reducing the incidence of injurious falls and financial burden of patients and optimizing the allocation of medical resources. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted by recruiting 234 inpatients who had fall injuries that occurred from January 2014 to December 2018 in three hospitals of Shanghai. According to the occurrence of injuries after falls, these patients were divided into the injury group and the non-injury group. The differences in the length of stay and medical expenses between the two groups were compared. Results: The median length of stay in the injury group was 18.00 days, and the median medical expenses was CNY 26496. The length of stay in the non-injury group was 12.00 days with the medical expenses being CNY 18809; the differences between the two groups were statistically significant (P<0.05). And severe injurious falls resulted in longer length of stay and more medical expenses. Conclusion: Injurious falls can cause additional financial burden on patients. Scientific and effective preventive measures should be actively formulated to reduce the occurrence of injurious falls to ensure the safety of patients in hospital and improve the quality of medical services.

Key words: injurious falls; length of stay; medical expenses; financial burden