The Joint Commission's latest data tells two stories at once. The first is grim. Hospital patient falls jumped again in 2024, hitting an all-time high in the commission's tracking. The second is forward-looking. A major shift in how these events get reported takes effect in January 2027, and hospitals are already scrambling to prepare. For families whose loved ones have been injured in a fall during a hospital stay, both stories point to the same uncomfortable truth. Falls inside healthcare settings keep climbing, and the system that's supposed to prevent them isn't working the way it should.
A Norfolk malpractice lawyer at Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp can review the medical records, work with qualified physicians to figure out what happened, and tell you whether the fall traces back to negligence or to circumstances no one could have prevented. The two are different, and Virginia law treats them differently.
What's Changing in 2027
In January 2027, the Joint Commission's sentinel event list will align with the National Quality Forum's updated Serious Reportable Events list. The new framework reorganizes and expands the list to 28 SREs across four categories. Falls with patient harm get their own dedicated category under Care Provision Events, alongside medication errors, pressure ulcers acquired after admission, and the newly added entries for diagnostic errors and failures to follow up on critical test results.
That last piece matters more than it might sound. By naming falls as a specific Serious Reportable Event, the industry is formally treating them as preventable failures rather than unavoidable accidents. The shift carries weight in legal cases too, because the SRE designation reinforces what malpractice attorneys have been arguing for years. A hospital fall with serious harm is almost always the result of something a hospital should have done and didn't.
The change doesn't take effect until 2027, but accredited hospitals are expected to start preparing now. The framework gives families and lawyers another data point to work with when investigating an injury.
The 2024 Numbers Set Records
In July 2025, the Joint Commission published its 2024 Annual Sentinel Event Review. Total sentinel events climbed 13 percent year over year, with hospitals reporting 1,575 incidents compared to 1,411 in 2023. Patient falls accounted for 776 of those events, up from 672 the prior year. Falls now account for 49 percent of all reported catastrophes in U.S. healthcare. More than wrong-site surgeries, retained surgical objects, and treatment delays combined.
The harm those falls caused is what really matters. Of the 776 patient falls reported in 2024:
- 51 patients died from their injuries
- 503 suffered severe harm, including fractures, brain bleeds, and major internal trauma
- 199 suffered moderate harm
- Patients aged 70 and older accounted for 56 percent of all fall victims (433 cases)
- Adults aged 18 to 69 made up another 42 percent (329 cases)
The leading injuries told a sobering story. Head and brain injuries, including subdural hematomas and subarachnoid hemorrhages, accounted for 38 percent of fall-related harm. Hip fractures came in at 25 percent. Leg fractures at 21 percent. These aren't sprains and bruises. They're the kinds of injuries that change what the rest of a person's life looks like.
The activities that led to the falls were nothing exotic. Walking accounted for 31 percent. Getting out of bed for 30 percent. Using the toilet for 18 percent. All three are predictable moments where patients with weakness, sedation, or confusion need help. When a fall happens during one of these routine activities, it usually means a hospital missed a warning sign or skipped a precaution that should have been in place.
Why the Numbers Keep Climbing
Falls represented just 18 percent of sentinel events in 2019. Five years later, they hit 49 percent. This reflects what's actually happening inside American hospitals.
The Joint Commission identified the root causes that recur. Communication breakdowns lead the list. The commission has reported that up to 80 percent of serious medical errors involve communication failures, especially during shift changes, patient handoffs, and care transitions. When fall-risk information doesn't carry over from one nurse to the next, the next nurse doesn't know which patient shouldn't be left alone.
The 2024 report also flagged specific contributing factors. Inadequate precautions for high-risk patients showed up in 5 percent of cases. Insufficient or incomplete staff training on fall prevention appeared in 4 percent. Task saturation, the term the commission uses for staff being overloaded with too many tasks at once, accounted for 3 percent of cases.
Staffing pressures sit underneath all of these issues. A 2024 American Nurses Foundation survey found that nurse-to-patient ratios remain stretched across most U.S. hospitals, and that bedside nurse turnover has remained high since the pandemic. When a nurse is responsible for too many patients at once, fall-prevention measures are compressed. Hourly rounding becomes once-every-couple-of-hours rounding. Call lights ring longer. Patients who were told to wait for help eventually decide they can't wait, get up alone, and end up on the floor.
Medications add another layer. Older patients are often on combinations of sedatives, opioids for post-surgical pain, and blood pressure medications, each of which affects balance and alertness. A hospital is supposed to identify these patients, document their elevated risk, and respond accordingly. When that step gets skipped, the consequences fall on the patient.
What Makes a Hospital Fall Malpractice in Virginia
Not every hospital fall is malpractice. Patients can fall even when staff does everything right, and the law doesn't punish hospitals for outcomes no one could have prevented. The law requires that the facility meet the standard of care. A Norfolk malpractice lawyer reviewing one of these cases will look at the questions that determine whether the standard was met:
- Did the hospital perform a fall risk assessment on admission and update it as the patient's condition changed?
- Did the care team document a fall prevention plan based on that assessment?
- Were the right interventions ordered, including bed alarms, low beds, hourly rounding, or a bedside sitter when appropriate?
- Were the patient's medications reviewed for their effect on fall risk?
- Did nursing staff respond promptly when the patient used the call light?
- Was the patient left alone in the bathroom or at the bedside when the plan said otherwise?
When the answers come back with complete documentation, the fall is usually a tragedy rather than a legal claim. When the records show gaps, missing assessments, skipped interventions, ignored alarms, unanswered call lights, the case begins to look very different.
Virginia's Time Limits
Virginia gives medical malpractice victims two years from the date of injury to file a lawsuit under Va. Code Section 8.01-243. That clock doesn't pause while the family waits for answers from the hospital. It doesn't extend because someone is busy caring for an injured parent. It runs from the date the injury occurred, with limited exceptions.
Virginia caps total damages in medical malpractice cases, with the cap increasing each year. Beneath that cap, recoverable damages include past and future medical bills, lost income, the cost of long-term care for a permanently disabled patient, and non-economic damages for pain, disability, and loss of quality of life. Wrongful death cases involving fatal hospital falls follow a related but separate framework.
About Our Firm
Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp has represented injured patients and families across Virginia and North Carolina since 1985. Members of the firm have written books and articles on personal injury and medical malpractice law and have presented at continuing legal education programs around the country on how these cases get built and tried. The firm has been recognized by peer-reviewed legal organizations for its work on behalf of victims of medical negligence.
If you or a family member was hurt in a hospital fall and you're not sure whether the injury reflects negligence, Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp can review what happened. The firm offers a free consultation to look at the records and help you understand whether you have a claim worth pursuing.
More information about the firm's medical malpractice work is available on the medical malpractice practice area page.
Call Shapiro, Washburn & Sharp at 833-997-1774 to speak with a Virginia Beach malpractice lawyer about your situation. The firm has offices in Virginia Beach, Portsmouth, Suffolk, Hampton, Norfolk, and Chesapeake, and represents injured patients and their families across Hampton Roads.
