The Winter season is upon us, full of crispy mornings, jack frost gardens, hot cups of tea with pretty fairy light decorations to the tune of Frank Sinatra. It can also be a difficult season for our beloved elderly if care homes, hospital’s and families are not equipped with a ‘Fall Management Program’ – so what’s that exactly?
How to implement a Fall Management Program
Were you aware that adults aged 65 and over have the highest risk of fall accidents? Every minute, six people over the age of 65 suffer a fall(1)
More troubling, falls are the primary contributors of disability and the leading cause of death from injury among people aged over 75 in the UK(1) A recent web report from leading organisation Age UK, found that every minute, six people over the age of 65 suffer a fall(1)
The UK Facts
With up to 25% of emergency call outs are due to falls in people aged 65 and over costing £115 per callout(3). Although the full financial cost of fall injuries for families, social care and the NHS hasn’t been calculated, it is known that hip fractures can cost annually within the region of £2bn.
“Did you know consequences of suffering a hip fracture after a month is that 1 in 12 people die and only half would be well enough to go home?”(2)
These costs will increase as people aged 65 and over are predicted to rise by over 40 per cent (40.77%) to over 16 million by 2032.(4)
Well isn’t that’s a substantial amount of injured and distressed elderly people when you add up the figures! – Let’s work towards reducing it.
What’s is a Fall Management Program?
With so much staggering data and statistics begs the question – what’s being done to prevent incidents? Actually, a lot especially on our behalf with regional hospitals.
Over the past 18 month’s Alert-iT equipment has been trialed and installed in 8 different hospital’s spread all over England, Wales and Republic of Ireland.
“Sometimes we have designed solutions for the wards as we try to learn and understand the requirements. These have ranged from anti-ligature brackets to a newly designed product.” – David Godfrey, Founder & Director
Leeds general Infirmary (LGI), West Yorkshire | Case Study:
“We started a Fall Reduction Program 2 years ago, looking into numerous ways to reduce falls in our wards “ – Corrine Hey, Head Ward Clark
LGI took a proactive approach to combating this issue and started a Fall Reduction Program 2 years ago. The core team looked into a number of ways to reduce Falls within their wards. They divided the program into three main areas, visual checks, cohort wards and equipment.
Ensuring hourly regular checks with patients could eliminate if they were in any pain, needed hydration (regular water fluids) or needed to use the toilet facilities.
As these are the typical motives for someone to get up to which they could experience a fall. Ensuring families provide the correct, comfortable footwear that is non-slip or the ward would provide their own when necessary.
Cohort wards was another safety measure implemented, putting all high risk patients on the same bay with a delegated nurse present at all times.
Funding 10 fall equipment solutions (unnamed company). It did take 2-3 weeks to implement the technology but it provided insightful results.
Overall the target of the Fall Reduction Program was to reduce falls by 50%, they actually reduced falls by 80%.
Your expert guide on what’s available
After such a successful results, research shows us that fall prevention devices and services dramatically reduce fall accidents.
LGI have now invested in updating their equipment with Alert-iT products from our Sense-iT range, due to the high-performance quality, clinical data support and cost effectiveness.
Our Sense-iT service area focuses primarily on Fall Management support and engineered innovative products.
Our expertise team is on hand to help answer any queries. Furthermore, if you would like FREE copy of our ‘Epidemiology of Falls’ PDF or to discover more about our Sense-iT range click here.
“We like to call it ‘Less Stress Caring’ support for both users and carers so both feel a new ease and peace of mind”
– Sense-iT Team, Alert-iT HQ
Please feel free to call our team directly on 01530 231 215 or email us directly here