Understanding Bed-Exit Alarms

Most hospital bed falls occur when a patient enters or exits the bed without staff assistance. Many fall risk patients forget to use the nurse call button and overestimate their physical abilities, which can lead to a fall or trip out of bed. Maintaining constant patient supervision to eliminate this unassisted movement can prove to be a costly effort for hospitals, as the cost of around the clock sitters adds up.

To combat the high cost of patient sitters, bed-exit alarms were introduced to detect bed activity and to minimize the number of bed exits without staff assistance. Instead of using a sitter to observe patient movement, the bed-exit alarm was designed to alert the nurses’ station to bed exit activity based on a change in patient positioning. A nurse’s response to the alarm would enable her to reposition, or assist the patient out of bed, which would minimize the possibility of a fall.

A nurse using a bed-exit alarm

The use of a bed-exit alarm is recommended for use with patients with stability issues, on medication, with cognitive impairment, or with any patient identified as a fall risk. Bed-exit alarms can help prevent falls by alerting nurses to bed exit behaviour that is attributed to patient falls, and is recommended as an integral component of a hospital’s patient fall prevention program.

Traditional Bed-exit Alarms Problems

The first bed-exit alarms were a revolution in patient monitoring. The earliest bed-exit alarms employed pressure sensitive pads placed directly under the patient or mattress and relied on a change in pressure to alert staff to bed-exit movement. However, these pressure pads were easily damaged due to the placement of the pad itself. Placing a pad directly under the patient caused wear and tear from movement and high patient turnover rates, which resulted in a need for annual pad replacement - yet another costly expense for hospitals.

These early bed-exit alarm systems were also prone to creating constant false alarms, which contributed to the growing concern of alarm fatigue. The pressure-based systems were either too sensitive or not sensitive enough to adapt to the changing positioning of patients. Oftentimes, an alarm would ring when a patient had not moved positioning, which prompted nurses to sometimes ignore an alarm. These systems were viewed as a distraction for many nurses, as using an alarm system meant monitoring its use especially considering the frequency of false alarms.

The Solution: the Integrated Bed-exit Alarm

The integrated bed-exit alarm system was introduced to address the problems faced by the traditional pressure bed-exit alarm pad.  An integrated bed exit alarm is built directly into the frame of the bed, as well as bed’s control panel.   There is less wear and tear on an integrated system, and more accurate readings.  

Integrated bed-exit alarms can also reduce the presence of false alarms. Some systems, including the CHG Spirit Select bed-exit alarm, will reset when a patient returns to bed.  Other automatic bed alarm features can also reduce staff errors and ensure the patient is always being monitored.

An integrated bed-exit alarm that is combined with a scale offers very accurate patient monitoring, as it measures small changes in patient weight, rather than pressure on a pad. Hyper-sensitivity factors can set off a pressure monitor without reason, but the integrated bed-exit alarm uses constant weight monitoring to detect patient movement.

Most integrated bed-exit alarm systems use a three zone system for nurses to monitor patients at varying levels of fall risk:

Zone	Goal	Patient Profile
#1 – Detects small changes in a patient’s positioning in bed	Intercept a fall	High fall risk Doesn’t use nurse call system Cognitive impairment Lower extremity dysfunction
#2 – Detects early signs of a patient attempting to exit the bed	Prevent a fall	Moderate to high fall risk Doesn’t use nurse call system Unsteady balance Overestimates ability Fear of falling
#3 – Detects patient wandering	Prevent patient wandering	Low fall risk Wanderer Doesn’t use nurse call system

Though integrated bed-exit alarms cannot prevent all patient falls, these systems have been recommended by The Joint Commission as an effective element of a fall risk reduction strategy.

The Future of Bed-exit Alarms

In the future, we can expect even more advancements in patient monitoring and patient safety. Within the past decade itself, there has been considerable innovation in patient monitoring systems. Between the earliest pressure pad bed-exit alarm systems, and new integrated bed-exit alarm systems, we have already witnessed increased accuracy and a reduction of false alarms. Technological advancements in bed-exit alarms have also helped to reduced alarm fatigue so that nurses can focus on patient care.

These intuitive systems will continue to reduce hospital costs and perform as a key component in helping to keep patients safe.

For more information about the CHG Hospital Beds Integrated 3-Zone Bed Exit Alarm visit www.chgbeds.com

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CHG Hospital Beds specializes in low hospital beds that are designed to prevent patient falls and related injuries within acute care environments. We are focused on patient and nurse safety and deliver innovative solutions to meet the needs of our customers.