Northampton General Hospital (NGH) is using sensor alarms to help protect elderly people at a ‘high risk’ of falls.
The alarms alert nursing staff when an ‘at risk’ patient attempts to get up from their chair or bed unaided, so they can be helped.
Jo Jennings, the hospital’s falls prevention coordinator, said: “The alarms are used on patients identified as being at high risk of falls, following a risk assessment carried out on admission to hospital. Most are found on elderly or stroke wards.
“Often, these are patients who don’t know they need help, or who don’t want to ask for it.”
The alarms consist of a bed and chair pressure sensor linked to a monitor.
When the patient stands up an alarm sounds to alert nursing staff that they need assistance.
The alarms help to prevent falls with patients who are experiencing confusion, for example due to an illness, infection, or dementia.
A hospital spokesman said: “The warning can either be an alarm noise, or staff can record a short verbal message such as ‘Hello John, please sit down and one of the nurses will be there to assist you’.
“This also allows an interpreter or family member to record a message in a different language if needed.”
Mrs Jennings said: “The alarms are proving to be highly effective at reducing the number of falls for patients using them, and are also improving the experience of other patients.
“Just last week a ward had a patient who kept standing up and trying to walk.
“He was unable to remember that – although he could stand - he could not walk unaided. The other three patients in the bay were constantly having to tell him to sit down and call for a nurse on his behalf.
“The man had had two falls when the other patients in the bay were asleep or behind curtains and were unable to call on his behalf.
“I set up the falls alarm with a recorded message to tell him to sit and wait for a nurse.
“Before I’d left the bay he stood up, heard the recording and sat back down. When I went back later the nurses reported that he had had no more falls, and the patients in the rest of the bay thanked me.
“One of them said ‘I can be a patient now and rest, without having to keep an eye on him’. So the use of the falls alarm sensor pads not only prevented that patient from falling,
“It also improved the experience of the other three patients in the bay.”
NGH now has 22 bed and chair alarms, costing just over £7,000 each, and were paid for by surplus contributions to the NGH charitable fund staff lottery during last year.
For more information call 0800 169 6565 or visit: http://www.ageuk.org.uk/health-wellbeing/keeping-fit/preventing-falls/
FALLS FACTS
- Thirty per cent of over-65s and 50 per cent of those aged over 80 fall every year.
- Falls cost the NHS an estimated £2.3 billion a year.
- Nearly 209,000 falls were reported in hospitals in England between October 1 2011 and September 30 2012.
- While the majority (97%) of these people experienced no or low harm (such as minor cuts and bruises), 90 patients died because of their falls. Around 900 patients experienced severe harm, such as hip fractures and head injuries.