Bed Alarms

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Hello there!! :)

Nurses, CNA's, all "hands-on" inpatient healthcare workers, I need your help!! I need your opinions on bed alarms! If you will please answer my questions, I'd be forever grateful. Thank you so much!

1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms?

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility?

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility?

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms?

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now?

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms?

12) Comments?

Thanks so much!!!!

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Specializes in Long term care-geriatrics.

1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency) I primarily work in nursing homes

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms? Most facilities use bed and wheel chair alarms

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms? 3

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility? 4

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility? 2

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility? 2

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility? 2

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility? 3

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms?

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now? 3

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms? 98% You will always have someone who will falll regardless of what you do.

12) Comments? You forgot to ask about how many times patients actually turn the things off or tear them up. On the problem of the alarms being turned off and the batteries being dead. Daily or even every shift the nurses on each med cart need to check the alarms. This can be done during med pass.

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Specializes in cardiothoracic surgery.

1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)

Hospital

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms?

Every day

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?

3

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility?

5 (We don't have batteries in ours)

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?

5

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility?

5

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?

4.5 -very rarely

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?

4.5

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms? Sometimes the patient can be out of the bed/chair before you are able to go in the room.

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now? I don't really know. I would think there are a lot of falls prevented with bed alarms, but patients will fall no matter what you do.

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms?

12) Comments?

Thanks so much!!!!

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Everything depends on the floor's culture. On my floor, everyone comes running when a bed alarm goes off, so it's useful for us, but it may not be as useful in places that ignore alarms (the not-my-patient syndrome) or are short-staffed.

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Specializes in LTC.

1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)...... Nursing Home

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms? . Every night I work.

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?.. 3

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility? ..We just had one last night as the resident was found on the floor. .. I give that a 3 again

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?... I always hear them.. don't know about the others. .. so 5

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility? .. The call light is hooked up to the bed alarm and that should go off when the bed alarm goes off. Not always.. so 4

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?... 5..

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?.. 4 as they sometimes go off for no reason.

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms? Not comfortable for patients, patients figure out how to turn them off.

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now? Unless someone is near the room when the alarm goes off, a fall can still occur. I would say about 30-40%.

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms? 50-60%. Falls are also affected by staffing. When we are short CNAs.. the bed alarms could still be functioning well and a fall is more likely to occur because they are busy in a room and not in their hallways.

12) Comments?... A bed alarm is not going to keep a patient from falling out of bed. Often we catch the patient while they are still sitting on the side of the bed but there have been times when the alarm goes off and in that 5 seconds or longer it takes to respond .. the patient is already on the floor.

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1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)

Nursing Home

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms?

we have bed and wheel chair alarms with SEVERAL residents

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?

I think this all depends on your assisting staff and nurses. If you and your have staff responds quickly then it can be very effective but if it takes you and your staff longer than a few seconds then the scale dwindles. At my facility every time I work I have to get my assisting staff together and stress and stress and stress the importance of answering call lights and alarms quickly!!! When I first started, I would be in a resident room giving med or a treatment and I'd hear an alarm or call bell and 1 minute later I was still hearing the alarm!! This in unacceptable and dangerous!!

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility?

At our facility our are the kind alarms you lay on or it on. Not the one that clip on, so every time the residents is turned or up to the BSC or BR or any thing like that then its "tested" and if an assisting staff member doesn't hear the alarm when the resident is up with assistance then a nurse is informed and the battery is changed. So i give this a 4.85 (very,very,very rare)

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?

To me, if you have residents on bed alarms then someone should consciously stay in the area to hear the bed alarm. and be able to get their within seconds. And our alarms are sooooo loud you can hear them on the porch of our facility. Ive never heard of an alarm going off without being heard.

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility?

Again, at our facility, as a whole we know our residents, we all know which residents have alarms. where their rooms are. what the residents habits are (do they try to get up alot, will the continue to get up even with the alarm sounding, do they never get up...) so locating the alarms is rarely an issue.

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?

NEVER!

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?

Ive never encountered an alarm that malfunctioned for no reason. If they are weight bearing alarms, then they may go of as the resident turns in bed, but i hardly classify this as a malfunction. Id rather it go off too much then not enough.

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms?

None really. Again, since we have weight bearing alarms, the residents cant "turn them off" or unclip them or any thing like that.

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now?

LOTS! since our staff knows to respond quickly, when i work at least, falls have decreased dramatically with those with alarms in place. this also depends on the responsiveness of the staff!

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms?

IT'S ALL ABOUT RESPONDING TO THE ALARM! Luckily, we have enough staff to respond quickly. And in the little time I've been at this facility if the resident had an alarm, they've not fallen.

12) Comments?

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Specializes in LTC.
1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)

Nursing Home

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms?

we have bed and wheel chair alarms with SEVERAL residents

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?

I think this all depends on your assisting staff and nurses. If you and your have staff responds quickly then it can be very effective but if it takes you and your staff longer than a few seconds then the scale dwindles. At my facility every time I work I have to get my assisting staff together and stress and stress and stress the importance of answering call lights and alarms quickly!!! When I first started, I would be in a resident room giving med or a treatment and I'd hear an alarm or call bell and 1 minute later I was still hearing the alarm!! This in unacceptable and dangerous!!

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility?

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?... I always hear them.. don't know about the others. .. so 5

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility? .. The call light is hooked up to the bed alarm and that should go off when the bed alarm goes off. Not always.. so 4

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?... 5..

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?.. 4 as they sometimes go off for no reason.

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms? Not comfortable for patients, patients figure out how to turn them off.

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now? Unless someone is near the room when the alarm goes off, a fall can still occur. I would say about 30-40%.

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms? 50-60%. Falls are also affected by staffing. When we are short CNAs.. the bed alarms could still be functioning well and a fall is more likely to occur because they are busy in a room and not in their hallways.

12) Comments?... A bed alarm is not going to keep a patient from falling out of bed. Often we catch the patient while they are still sitting on the side of the bed but there have been times when the alarm goes off and in that 5 seconds or longer it takes to respond .. the patient is already on the floor.

Questions 5-12 were my exact answers....?

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You need to define "effective." Effective at what? Peventing falls? No. Getting there quickly when they do? Yes.

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1) What kind of facility do you work for? (Hospital, Nursing Home, Assisted Living, Home Health Agency)

Hospital (formally)

2) How often do you come into contact with bed alarms?

They were required for all patients that were deemed a fall risk. we would use both the "string" kid (where the patient would be attached to a box via a string that could be pulled out) as well as the bed weight kind.

3) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being not effective at all, 5 being completely effective), how would you rate the effectiveness of bed alarms?

3 - Often a patient would become confused by a bed alarm and would try to get up "and answer the phone" when they normally would have stayed put.

4) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do you find dead batteries in bed alarms to go undetected in your facility?

0 - But we had battery testing and routine battery switching. The beds were plugged in.

5) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms sound without being heard in your facility?

0 - small floor, loud alarms

6) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often is it difficult to locate a sounding alarm in your facility?

4 for string alarms (the patient would usally be sitting away from the door, muffling the sound)

0 for bed alarms (it was tied to the call light, and a light above the room would go off)

7) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often are bed alarms left disconnected in your facility?

4 - we actually started to fill out reports when a patient was found without a BA, the number went to about 0 or 1 after that

8) On a scale from 0 to 5 (0 being always, 5 being never), how often do bed alarms malfunction with no apparent reason in your facility?

2 - always the bed alarms, which would go off with the slightest movement in the bed

9) What other problems do you encounter with bed alarms?

Some of the patients figured out how to disarm them

They would go off when the patient moved in bed

They would not go off if the patient sat up in bed

They often caused comfusion in patients who did not know what the sound was or where it was coming from

10) In your opinion, what percentage of falls do you believe are prevented by bed alarms now?

60%

11) In your opinion, if the issues discussed in Question #'s 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 were resolved, what percentage of falls do you believe could be prevented by bed alarms?

70%

12) Comments?

In general, I felt that the alarms caused more problems then they solved (due to the list in #9) but they did prevent falls and I do not know of an anternative.

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Specializes in LTC.
1)

3 - Often a patient would become confused by a bed alarm and would try to get up "and answer the phone" when they normally would have stayed put.

They do get very confused by the alarm. I had a resident sleeping like a baby in front of the desk in her w/c. The maintenance men were hammering something down the hall which sounded like knocking. She woke up immediately.. "I will be right there!!".. and went to get up "thinking someone was at the door." She starts to get up out of her w/c and her alarm goes off and as I am running over to her so she doesn't fall she is like "oh and the phone is ringing.. and someones at the door!!!" She was nuts-o after that.

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Just curious what this information is being used for... personal information? risk management? selling more bed alarms?

I'd be happy to answer, I just like to know who I'm talking to and why you are gathering this information. [i see this is your first and only post on AN.]

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dajulieness...sorry!! i copied yours to answer for myself and accidently hit enter and it posted! I edited it but apparently the edit didn't go through. sorry about that!

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