How Can Bed and Chair Alarms Facilitate Fall Prevention for Elderly
Elderly patients tend to fall, which may lead to severe injuries. As a hospital owner, you also need to bear the costs associated with falls, including patient care, extended stay, and liability.
However, you can prevent such falls by using bed and chair alarms. The effectiveness of bed and chair alarms mitigates the chance of falls in patients that can’t move or ambulance themselves. You can use them together with security camera. View the comparison vivint vs. adt
How can these alarms prevent fall for the elderly?
Here are the ways such alarms do so:
Alarm Sounds
The alarm system functions with 1-2 weight-sensitive sensor pads attached to the beds and chairs. Once the contact breaks with the alarm sensor pad, an alarm sounds inside the patients’ rooms as a call at the central nurses’ area.
In beds, the pad is placed somewhere between the shoulder blades and buttocks. The higher placement gives you an extended response time to reach patients attempting to leave their beds. You can increase the sensing interval from 4 to 8 seconds on the bed pressure pad to decrease false alarms.
In chairs, an immediate alarm sounds when patients attempt to lift their bodies off the sensing pads.
General Care
General care includes different fall prevention measures depending on patient-centric and clinical judgment risk factors. The documentation screens in the electronic medical record show a list of usual safety measures and fall prevention involvements for patients at high risks.
Notification
As nursing staff is so preoccupied and elders’ decision to leave their beds and chairs is an instant decision, the alarms give your staff the required information to immediately attend to patients.
The effectiveness of bed and chair alarms is as good as the staff responding to them. So, it’s crucial to ensure your staff understands the instant response required once the alarm goes off.
Availability in Various Styles and Functionalities
Bed and chair alarms are available in various styles and functionalities. It is possible to create some kinds of alarms to make noise in the nurse station but not near the patient’s bed.
Though a bed and chair alarm does not physically stop patients from falling, it helps prevent a fall for many at-risk patients, mainly those who move slowly or frail. The faster-moving patients can also benefit from an alarm if their bed is placed close to the nurse’s station. This way, it is easier to help as and when required.
Perfect Replacement of Resources
The hospital staff is usually responsible for evaluating the elderly patients’ risk profiles and the nearby environment to decide when a bed alarm is required. You can employ an attendant beside every patient 24/7, but most hospitals don’t have so many resources.
Bed and chair alarms are a good and affordable intervention that can function as an early warning system and prevent elderly falls.
Bottom Line
Falls are a serious threat to old patients’ safety which causes severe injury to them and prolongs their stay in your hospital. Many falls occur in the patient rooms when the elderly try to move from their beds and chairs without help.
As your hospital staff is busy looking after numerous patients simultaneously, you should leverage the effectiveness of bed and chair alarms to ensure there are no falls. The alarms make noise when they attempt to move beds and chairs. Your staff can reach immediately to stop them from falling. So, promote safety inside your hospital by installing alarms.
