Falls!!!!Falls!!!!!Falls!!!!!!

Just a recent observation regarding falls in my own facility. I've been the DON of a small rural 42 bed facility for about 6 months now. When I started they had approx 15 personal alarms and averaging about 12-15 falls a month. The admin who hired me asked in the beginning to see what I could do about drastically reducing alarms. Mid April I got rid of the very last alarm and we are officially a restraint/alarm free facility. I added just a few new interventions where merited, but really not much.

We were soooooooo skeptical when they decided to do away with alarms in my facility several years ago. But it is really much more pleasant, and I don't think falls have increased.

It gets a little frustrating sometimes with residents who probably could benefit from an alarm. But alarm creep happens, and suddenly everyone has an alarm, they're going off constantly, and no one is paying any attention to them.

Maybe its the patient perception of feeling safe around staff can play a factor with previous history of over promising and under delivering.