Elimination of position-change alarms in an Alzheimer's and dementia long-term care facility

Abstract

In a long-term care facility, whose residents have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease or dementia, falls are a particularly prominent issue. Technology in health care has continued to evolve and play a larger role in how we care for our patients, even in preventing falls. However, overreliance on these types of technologies may have detrimental effects. In our facility, it was felt that staff reliance on position-change alarms was inappropriate due to the high rate of false alarms associated with these devices. We took a tiered approach to removing position-change alarms from our facility, monitoring the fall incidence rate for a period before, during, and after the elimination of these alarms. After discontinuing their use, we found a decrease in the rate of falls, and a decrease in the percentage of our residents who fell. Staff has easily adapted and reports a calmer, more pleasant environment.

Figure 1.

Mean percentage of residents who fell as a function of time in both the entire population and the subpopulation. Results indicate the percentage of patients who fell during the observation period decreased over time, as the alarms were removed from the facility.

Figure 2.

Graphic representation of falls per 1000 patient days as a function of intervention stage. Depicted are the number of falls occurring in both the overall population and the longitudinal population (only those who resided in the facility during the entire observation period). Results show a trend for decreased number of falls as alarms were removed.