Objective: Falls make up the highest proportion of abnormal events in the hospital; therefore, every hospital sets a threshold for the incidence of falls as part of quality control and the hospital accreditation process. Few studies have discussed the rationale for using a common threshold for falls in different sections of the hospital. The aim of this study was to explore the rationale for applying such a common threshold for the incidence of falls in different sections as an administrative reference.Methods: In this retrospective study, the number of falls and the total hospital days in different sections of the study medical center were collected for 2007-2010. The data were divided into high, middle and low incidence groups. Correlations between the incidence of falls and improvements in that incidence were analyzed by linear regression and generalized estimating equations (GEE).Results: There was a great difference in the incidence of falls in different sections of the hospital. The difference between the highest (psychiatric 2.02 per mille) and the lowest (gynaecologic 0.33 per mille) was 6.09 times higher. We found an apparent improvement in the incidence of falls in the Psychiatric section, but falls increased in the gynaecologic and hospice sections from 2007 to 2010. By using GEE analysis, we found that those sections which had a low incidence of falls in 2007, showed an increase over the three years. Those sections with a medium incidence of falls showed no apparent differences, but the sections with a high incidence improved.Conclusions: It is inappropriate to apply the same health care indicator threshold to different sections of the hospital without considering their different patient characteristics. This only puts pressure on those sections which have a high incidence of falls. In order to establish appropriate thresholds for quality health care, we suggest that hospitals adopt a percentage of improvement for each section as the quality control standard. This would enable the hospital to move forward to a better level of Total Quality Management, and make the quality indicator threshold more meaningful.