Fall Prevention: Are bed alarms overused?
Final Synthesis Paper
Erin McCarthy
University of North Dakota
Peer review provided by: Cynthia Anderson
Background and Rationale Falls among any individual can cause significant trauma, often leading to an increase in mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), one in every three adults over the age of 65 falls each year. Long-term care facilities account for many of these falls, with an average of 1.5 falls occurring per nursing home bed annually (Vu, Weintraub, & Rubenstein, 2004). In 2001, the American Geriatric Society, British Geriatric Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Panel on Falls Prevention published specific guidelines to prevent falls in long-term care settings (Shimada, Tiedemann, Lord, & Suzuki, 2009). These guidelines included “staff education programs; gait training and advice on the appropriate use of assistive devices; and review and modification of medications” (Shimada et al., 2009, page 825). However, according to Shimada et al. (2009), these interventions have helped prevent falls in long-term care residents who are independently mobile and cognitively intact, but have limited effectiveness on those who are not as independently ambulatory and cognitively impaired. Some research studies suggest that scheduled patient rounding leading to enhanced supervision will decrease the number of falls in residents of long-term care communities. Interventions included in this scheduled patient rounding include, but are not limited to, checking rooms every hour, offering and assisting with toileting, removing obstacles in resident’s rooms, and providing a diversion activity for those who are more subject to wandering (Shimada et al., 2009). Many facilities, however, continue to utilize bed alarms in place of scheduled rounding as part of comprehensive fall prevention programs (Hubbartt, Davis, & Kautz, 2011). This alarm can be heard throughout the entire unit once a presumed
Erin McCarthy
University of North Dakota
Peer review provided by: Cynthia Anderson
Background and Rationale Falls among any individual can cause significant trauma, often leading to an increase in mortality. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2012), one in every three adults over the age of 65 falls each year. Long-term care facilities account for many of these falls, with an average of 1.5 falls occurring per nursing home bed annually (Vu, Weintraub, & Rubenstein, 2004). In 2001, the American Geriatric Society, British Geriatric Society, and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons Panel on Falls Prevention published specific guidelines to prevent falls in long-term care settings (Shimada, Tiedemann, Lord, & Suzuki, 2009). These guidelines included “staff education programs; gait training and advice on the appropriate use of assistive devices; and review and modification of medications” (Shimada et al., 2009, page 825). However, according to Shimada et al. (2009), these interventions have helped prevent falls in long-term care residents who are independently mobile and cognitively intact, but have limited effectiveness on those who are not as independently ambulatory and cognitively impaired. Some research studies suggest that scheduled patient rounding leading to enhanced supervision will decrease the number of falls in residents of long-term care communities. Interventions included in this scheduled patient rounding include, but are not limited to, checking rooms every hour, offering and assisting with toileting, removing obstacles in resident’s rooms, and providing a diversion activity for those who are more subject to wandering (Shimada et al., 2009). Many facilities, however, continue to utilize bed alarms in place of scheduled rounding as part of comprehensive fall prevention programs (Hubbartt, Davis, & Kautz, 2011). This alarm can be heard throughout the entire unit once a presumed
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