Patient Fall Prevention
…A Feature of Dalcon Alert!
Patient falls are listed as a Never Event by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). CMS defines never events as, “errors in medical care that are clearly identifiable, preventable, and serious in their consequences for patients, and that indicate a real problem in the safety and credibility of a health care facility.” Since June 2008, when CMS mandated that they would refuse to reimburse hospitals for a list of identified never events, limiting the occurrence of patient fall never events has been of utmost concern to hospitals across the nation.
Limiting Patient Falls with Dalcon Alert!
Caregivers in the modern hospital are presented with a dilemma today, and as a result, fall prevention in the hospital can seem like an uphill battle. As a first line of defense, fall-risk patients can be identified to allow special assignments and resources to be dedicated to that patient. These can include fall prevention monitoring devices and extra staff attention; but prevention success seems largely tied to staffing resources. Staff can’t actively assist fall risk patients if they aren’t around to hear the audible alarms created by bed fall/exit pads.
Dalcon Alert! is a system designed to overcome this hurdle. Because of the remote patient monitoring capabilities of Dalcon Alert!, it is as if caregivers can be everywhere at once. In addition, the Alert Management Software provided by the Dalcon Alert! system makes sure that no alerts ever fall through the cracks. If a bed exit/fall pad alert goes off, that alert can’t be canceled until a caregiver attends to the patient.
Please Note: Once installed, the Dalcon Alert! System also helps staff manage other types of alerts such as “Bed Turn” alerts and IV pump alarms.
How Dalcon Alert! Works to Prevent Falls
- Fall prevention monitoring devices are plugged into the Remote Alert Monitor (RAM). Such devices include but are not limited to:
• Bed fall pads
• Bed exit pads
• Bed fall tether cords - When a fall-risk patient sets off an alert by the fall prevention device plugged into the RAM, the RAM interprets the alert and sends it to the Dalcon Communications Manager (DCM) server via existing phone wiring.
- The DCM routes the fall alert and room number to desired endpoints including:
• Wireless Phones carried by the nurses.
• The Overhead Pager, allowing the nearest caregiver to immediately respond.
• The Nursing Station so each alert can be actively managed - The alert is logged and is maintained by Dalcon Alert! Alert management software on an active console display until canceled.
- When the caregiver responds to the fall alert in the patient room, he/she can assist the patient and press the alert cancel button to record the time of response and to remove the alert from the active list.
See also the White Paper, “An Assessment of Falls in Patients’ Rooms and Methods of Prevention” which analyzes the severity of patient fall liability for hospitals; and methods of fall prevention.
Learn More About Dalcon Alert!
To learn more about Dalcon Alert!, and how it can limit the prevalence of “Never Events,” please call (877) WE-UNIFY (938-6439) or click here to submit a question online.
