Fall Prevention: Re-look

Falls in the hospital is no laughing matter. Nor a topic that is trendy as 5G, flying taxi, or autonomous car/bus. Patients are vulnerable to falls regardless of age, gender. The risk of falling increases as you get older. My mother-in-law was hospitalized in a community hospital in Singapore. In early Oct 2019, she had a fall during sleeping hours, near the hospital bed. We know bits and pieces of the incident through an older adult sleeping next to her:

• The entire process of climbing out of bed took about 30 mins
• The older adult sleeping next to my mother-in-law pressed the panic button, and shout for nurses.
• After my mother-in-law fall from her bed, she was crying, and other patients also scream for help.

No one knows how long it took for the nurses to rescue my mother-in-law. As a family member, we ask for accountability and information from the hospital on how this could happen. The hospital did not provide us with much information. The explanation from the hospital was that the nurses are busy assisting patients in other wards.

During my recent business trip to Osaka, I have sone "zen" time to sit down, ate some Takoyaki and Okonomiyaki, and think about the fall incident befall to my mother-in-law. I start doing some research, read some articles, and inquiring information from my friends working in the healthcare domain.

1. Hospital around the world is facing shortages of nurses.
2. To prevent falls, methods include the use of bed-exit sensors, the use of railings, lowering the bed, employ restraining vest, physical therapy to increase the core strength of the patient, etc.
3. Since I founded SoundEye, I was keen to find a solution on how to prevent falls using bed-exit alarm sensors. So far I didn't get the chance of developing such a system - yet. It is an excellent first line of defense, but according to research findings, the bed-exit alarm sensors does not reduce falls near the bed-side. Alarm fatigue and shortage of nurse contributes to this. The critical part of this conundrum, general bed-exit alarm system triggers alert a few seconds before the patient stands up and walks.

Hours after I posted on LinkedIn about my mother-in-law, had a fall, comments trickling in. These include the use of thermal cameras, bed-mat sensors, carpet-sensors, etc. Replies from my ex-colleagues working on advanced sensors also proposed the use of a bed-exit alarm system. To my horror, this indicates that we are all looking in the wrong direction all this while! All these sensors trigger alert and notify someone but have a limited effect on fall prevention!

I will stop here, and the takeaway of this article is plain, simple, and straightforward. Fall Prevention needs to be re-looked from a different perspective. Share your thoughts on this article to craft a better solution for fall prevention. If you are a geriatrician, occupational therapist, nurse or expert domain related to fall prevention, please contact me. I would like to validate my ideas that I have for fall prevention.

If this article receives enough constructive comments, probably I will write another article, "Fall Prevention: Re-design." with the new ideas that I have. Till then, let us continue contributing to our society.