KMUTT invention seeks to safeguard bedridden patients

[webfact]

KMUTT invention seeks to safeguard bedridden patients

By THE NATION

 

A new electromechanical system developed by King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and a German partner is connected to a patient’s bed to detect movements that could lead to a fall.

 

ACCIDENTAL FALLS suffered by bedridden patients at medical facilities or at home could be pre-emptively avoided thanks to a newly developed programme by Bangkok-based King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) and a private sector partner.

 

Lecturer Prakankiat Youngkong at KMUTT’s Institute of Field Robotics said the electromechanical system was unlike other devices that call for help after an immobilised patient’s fall. 

 

The new invention would instead be activated when rails on both sides of a bed were lifted into place, he said. 

If a patient moved in a way that posed a risk of falling off the bed, the invention would sound alarms and send a warning alert to ward staff room. The alarm would be triggered if a patient placed an arm or leg on a bed rail or exerted pressure on a rail’s side. 

 

The alarm would also sound if the bed rails were pushed down, he said, alerting nurses to potential fall.

Patients’ attempts to get off a bed had often led to accidental falls, Prakankiat said.

 

The device’s pressure detection could be adjusted to account for a patient’s age and weight, he added.

 

The programme was developed in a collaboration between KMUTT’s Institute of Field Robotics and the Berlin Germany Import Co Ltd. The development team was sent to in-patient wards at four hospitals – Taksin Hospital, Suranaree University of Technology Hospital, Siriraj Piyamaharajkarun Hospital and Bang Khun Tian Senior Hospital – to implement the system on a pilot basis, Prakankiat said.

 

The device could be used in hospitals or at home to safeguard paralysed patients and bedridden elderly people as Thailand moves towards an ageing society, he said. The number of retirees is expected to be 20 per cent of the population by 2025.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30330351

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2017-10-30

[colinneil]

I cannot see the need for this gismo.

I am paralyzed sleep on a hospital bed, which has side rails, if the side rails are in the raised position, it is impossible for me to fall off my bed.

[colinneil]

Another reason why i think this gismo is no use, i have bedsores and have to turn approx every 2 hours, and i use the side rails to pull myself over.

If a hospital patient was using 1 of those beds fitted with the alarm nurses would be up and down all night checking if the patient had fallen out.

Then after a while would ignore the alarm, thinking the patient was turning over, and that could lead to a patient not getting assistance when needed.

[YetAnother]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The alarm would be triggered if a patient placed an arm or leg on a bed rail or exerted pressure on a rail’s side. 

going to be a lot of false alarms for big people in the not-large beds here

[nausea]

"Invention", maybe the second most misused word in Thailand after "hub". I doubt very much that this is a "new invention", as these kind of bed alarms have been around for quite a while:

 

'Alarms — sensors that alert aides or nurses when someone at risk of falling attempts to get out of bed or up from a chair or toilet ... .' 

 

'Use of these alarms has increased “over the past 10 or 15 years as the problems of physical restraints and bed rails became better known,” said Ronald Shorr, who directs geriatric research at the V.A. Medical Center in Gainesville, Fla. “This was the next wave in fall prevention.” '

 

https://newoldage.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/14/hospital-alarms-fail-to-prevent-injury-study-finds/

 

Incidentally, they don't work:

 

'The trouble is, hospital bed alarms don’t appear to reduce falls, according to the study that Dr. Shorr just published in The Annals of Internal Medicine.'

Ibid

 

And then, of course, there's the cost; I would've thought resources could be put to better use.