Over the Bed and Out of the Woods: Bed Exit Alarms at the Point of Care Reduce Patient Falls

Purpose:
Portable bed exit alarms were used by staff as a fall prevention measure but were often not accessible when needed. Our goal was to improve staff access to these devices by mounting the unit above the patient bed.

Significance:
Patient falls are the largest category of adverse events in our 1000+ bed academic hospital. Although a Fall Prevention Program was in place, progress in meeting hospital and national benchmarks for reducing fall and fall injury rates were static.

Strategy and Implementation:
Portable bed exit alarm devices were mounted and secured above each bed on 2 medical nursing divisions in December 2008 (intervention units). The usual standard of care, whereby staff retrieved the bed exit alarm device and sensormat from the supply room, was practiced on each of their sister units (control units). One of the intervention units also improved access to the sensormat by placing it in the wall mounted holder outside the patient room. Fall rates and fall injury rates were collected for 6 months, January through June, on both the intervention and control units pre and post implementation. In addition, staff were surveyed regarding accessibility to the device, whether the wall mounted unit helped prevent a fall and if they would recommend other units to mount the device above the bed.

Evaluation:
The fall rate on one intervention unit decreased from 4.48 in 2008 to 1.96 in 2009 (January through June). The other intervention unit saw only a slight decrease in their fall rate during the same time period (3.89 to 3.68), however their injury rate decreased significantly from 1.56 to 0.

Implications for Practice:
In addition to a reduction in fall rates, mounting the bed exit alarm device above the bed reduced costs related to loss and damage of units, improved staff satisfaction, and decreased resources needed to catalogue and track the devices.