Falls Prevention in Hospital

Last week saw the Royal College of Physicians release the ‘ Falls Prevention in Hospital: a Guide for Patients, their Families and Carers ’. The guide was produced by the Falls and Fragility Fracture Audit Programme (FFFAP).

Fall prevention in hospitals guide has been designed to help prevent serious injury to patients and unnecessary cost to the NHS caused by older people tripping or falling when they are in hospital.

The guide provides jargon free information on the care which patients can expect to receive in hospital, as well as advice on how to be alert to potential dangers and how to avoid them. It sets out a check list of simple measures that, when undertaken, can minimise the risk of falling or tripping.

Advice in the checklist includes:

Tips on exercises to improve circulation when getting out of bed or before standing
How to use walking aids in hospital safely
Ensuring the bedside environment is uncluttered and vision glasses and walking aids are to hand when standing
The importance of patients informing medical staff if they have fallen in the last year, are worried about falling, have a history of falls or feel dizzy

Falls Prevention in Hospital: a Guide for Patients, their Families and Carers, is available to download.

Implementing these measures can significantly reduce the number of falls experienced. However, implementing these measures alongside using SensorCare Systems products, can further reduce the number of falls, along with reducing harm from falls.

The moment the patient attempts to vacate the bed or chair, the system will sound an alarm to alert carers. The systems are calibrated to the weight of the patient, once the systems sense a change in the weight, this will trigger the alarm. As a result, the SensorCare fall prevention systems allow for better monitoring of patients, reducing fall instances.