Bed and chair alarms for fall prevention in short-term care

Bed and Chair Alarms in a Short-Term Care Facility

The nursing problem

The short-term care facility registers a rather increased rate of falls among its patients, from both beds as well as chairs. In some of these cases, the injuries associated with the falls are rather severe, and in a small percentage, they are even fatal. The nursing staffs seek to prevent patient falls from occurring, but being understaffed and working in a demanding environment, guarding each patient at all times is virtually impossible.

A longitudinal analysis of the patient falls in the short-term care facility has revealed that the problem is a rather constant one, without major fluctuations having been observed in the falls registered by patients from beds and chairs. In order to address the matter, a solution is proposed in that of integrating alarms in the bed and chairs used by the patients at the short-term care facility. The beds and chairs would, as such, contain built in sensors to alert the nursing staffs when a patient is at risk of falling. The mechanism by which the alarm would alert the staffs of falling risks is that the sensors would be able to identify when the patient changes the weight pressure in the chair and the bed, by moving in manners which endanger their safety and stability within the bed and the chair. By assessing the patient movements then, the sensors would alert the staffs of risks and the nurses could intervene in order to prevent the fall.

"The primary purpose of bed and chair alarms is to alert staff to a potential fall when a resident attempts to get out of bed or up from a chair. Bed and chair alarms are typically pressure sensitive devices placed in beds, chair pads and wheelchair seats that respond to changes in pressure with a warning signal" (Horowitz, 2014).

Solutions to overcoming the barriers

A first aspect that has to be addressed is represented by the fact that the studies mentioned throughout the previous section focus on patient falls within the long-term care facilities, where staffs are the primary caregivers of the patients. Within these facilities, nursing shortages make it virtually impossible to be on constant watch of patients and prevent falls, and the nurses come to manage after-fall instances. Within the context of short-term care however, the patients who come in are themselves better able to take care of themselves; they are in better health conditions than the patients in long-term care, meaning that they themselves could be alarmed by the bed and the chair and could themselves intervene to change their position and make sure they do not fall. Additionally, these patients also normally come accompanied by someone, be them a friend, a spouse, a son, a daughter and so on. This means that there is always someone by their side who can quickly respond to the alarm and intervene to prevent the patient from falling and becoming more injured.

Aside from this, the operational barrier would be addressed by installing the alarms during the night, and this would not disrupt daily operations; also, at night, the short-term care facility is rather empty and patients would not be disturbed. All in all, the short care facility would benefit from the usage of bed and chair alarms and would further increase the safety of their patients, even if not completely to eliminate falls, but, at least, to reduce their incidence (Geffre).

References:

Geffre, S., Bed alarms: Investigating their impact on fall reduction and restraint use, Stanley Healthcare, https://www.stanleyhealthcare.com/files/pdf/st-alexius.pdf accessed on February, 8, 2016

Horowitz, A., (2014) Personal resident alarms: More protection or more risk? Long-Term Living Magazine http://www.ltlmagazine.com/blogs/alan-c-horowitz/personal-resident-alarms-more-protection-or-more-risk accessed on February 8, 2016

Shorr, R.I., Chandler, A.M., Mion, L.C., Waters, T.M., Liu, M., Daniels, M.J., Kessler, L.A., Miller, S.T., (2012) Effects of an intervention to increase bed alarm use to prevent falls in hospitalized patients, Annals of Internal Medicine, No. 20, 157 (10): 629-699