Integrating Real-Time Location Systems with Electronic Medical Records: A Machine Learning Approach for In-Hospital Fall Risk Prediction

Hospital falls are the most prevalent adverse event in healthcare, posing significant risks to patient health outcomes and institutional care quality. The effectiveness of several fall prediction models currently in use is limited by various clinical factors. This study explored the efficacy of merging real-time location system (RTLS) data with clinical information to enhance the accuracy of in-hospital fall predictions. The model performances were compared based on the clinical data, RTLS data, and a hybrid approach using various evaluation metrics. The RTLS and integrated clinical data were obtained from 22,201 patients between March 2020 and June 2022. From the initial cohort, 118 patients with falls and 443 patients without falls were included. Predictive models were developed using the XGBoost algorithm across three distinct frameworks: clinical model, RTLS model, and clinical + RTLS model. The model performance was evaluated using metrics, such as AUROC, AUPRC, accuracy, PPV, sensitivity, specificity, and F1 score. Shapley additive explanation values were used to enhance the model interpretability. The clinical model yielded an AUROC of 0.813 and AUPRC of 0.407. The RTLS model demonstrated superior fall prediction capabilities, with an AUROC of 0.842 and AUPRC of 0.480. The clinical + RTLS model excelled further, achieving an AUROC of 0.853 and AUPRC of 0.497. Feature importance analysis revealed that movement patterns of patients on the last day of their stay were significantly associated with falls, together with elevated RDW levels, sedative administration, age. This study underscored the advantages of combining RTLS data with clinical information to predict in-hospital falls more accurately. This innovative technology-driven approach may enhance early fall risk detection during hospitalization, potentially preventing falls, improving patient safety, and contributing to more efficient healthcare delivery.