Development and alarm threshold evaluation of a side rail integrated sensor technology for the preve.pdf

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f m e d i c a l i n f o r m a t i c s 7 9 ( 2 0 1 0 ) 173–180 j o u rn al h omepage: www.i /jou rna l s / i jm i Development and alarm threshold evaluation of a side rail integrated sensor technology for the prevention of falls Johannes Hilbe ∗, Eva Schulc, Barbara Linder, Christa Them Department of Nursing Science, Austria a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: Objective: Patient falls constitute a serious problem both for the persons fallen and for the Received 16 April 2009 institutions involved. Bed-exit alarm systems are used to reduce patient falls. Existing bed- Received in revised form exit alarm systems have several disadvantages depending on the technology used. As in 30 November 2009 “Evaluation of Bed-Exit Alarms” stated, restless, light weighted, uncooperative, incontinent Accepted 18 December 2009 and confused patients require different systems. The aim of this work is to present the research and development process of the integrated, universally applicable BUCINATOR bed-exit-alarm system. Keywords: Methods: The use-case technique was applied to capture the functional requirements for Accidental falls the development of the new integrated bed-exit alarm system. An experimental study was Safety carried out to collect data regarding preliminary sensitivity and specificity for alarm set-off. Nursing Results: Major id