Abstract
Falls and fall-related injuries are increasingly serious issues among elderly inpatients due to population aging. The bed-exit alarm has only previously been evaluated in a handful of studies with mixed results. Therefore, we evaluated the effectiveness of a modular bed absence sensor device (M-BAS) in detecting bed exits among older inpatients in a middle income nation in East Asia. Patients aged ≥65 years on an acute geriatric ward who were able to mobilize with or without walking aids and physical assistance were recruited to the study. The total number of alarms and the numbers of true and false alarms were recorded by ward nurses. The M-BAS device is placed across the mattress of all consenting participants. Nurses' workload was assessed using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) score, while nurses' perceptions were surveyed. The sensitivity of the M-BAS was 100% with a positive predictive value of 68% and a nuisance alarm rate of 31%. There was a significant reduction in total NASA-TLX workload score (mean difference = 14.34 ± 13.96 SD, p < 0.001) at the end of the intervention period. 83% of the nurses found the device useful for falls prevention, 97% found it user friendly, and 87% would use it in future. The M-BAS was able to accurately detect bed absence episodes among geriatric inpatients and alert nurses accordingly. The use of the device significantly reduced the total workload score, while the acceptability of the device was high among our nurses. A larger, cluster randomized study to measure actual falls outcome associated with the use of the device is now indicated.
Highlights
Patient safety is paramount in order to achieve quality health care
This was a two-part study, employing an uncontrolled design evaluating the effectiveness of the modular bed absence sensor device (M-BAS) in identifying bedexit events and the nurses’ perception on the usefulness of the device, as well as a quasi-experimental design comparing the workload of nurses before and after the introduction of the M-BAS
Our modular bed absence alarm system was effective in alerting nurses when patients were about to leave or had left their beds, with a sensitivity of 100% and an acceptable nuisance alarm rate of 32%
Summary
Patient safety is paramount in order to achieve quality health care. Adverse events such as falls, alongside mortality and morbidity, are considered as negative outcomes associated with poor quality of care [1]. Falls have been reported to be among the most common type of inpatient accidents [2, 3], which compromises patient safety in health-care institutions. The increasing incidence of falls alongside the rapidly growing older population worldwide incurs direct and indirect costs, which lead to serious social and economic consequences. We evaluated the effectiveness of a modular bed absence sensor device (M-BAS) in detecting bed exits among older inpatients in a middle income nation in East Asia
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