The Reduction of Tumbling and Falling Accidents Based on a Built-in Patient Alert System in the Hospital Bed

Abstract

We have proposed a built-in patient alert system on the bed which has actuators with built-in force sensors. This system estimates a patient’s motion such as rising, seating and standing, based on the information of load variations on the bed. When the patient’s motion with a risk of falling/tumbling accident is detected, the bed sends the signal through the nurse call system to the staff room. The built-in patient alert system thus makes cure and care environment efficient and effective. Performance comparison of various patient alert systems in acute hospitals shows the proposed system has higher accuracy and lower false alert. In concrete terms, hospital wards using built-in patient alert system increases the alert accuracy ratio from 70.1% to 98.1% and decreases the false alert ratio from 50.1% to 2.4% compared to hospital wards using existing sensors. And these effects are shown as the decrease of falling/tumbling accident rate. In concrete terms, hospital wards using built-in patient alert systems decreases the falling/tumbling accident ratio by 32~73% compared to hospital wards using existing sensors.