To read: ~ 5 minutes
“The incident bothered me and kept me up at night,” recalled Dan Mather, MSN, RN, of Salina Regional Health Center, of the time he was the nursing manager on a unit experiencing too many falls with injuries. “I took my passion for simplicity and process improvement and had an epiphany: a technology integration between patient smart beds and a light and tone outside their room that would alert nursing staff the patient had gotten out of bed.”
Beloved Betty
The tragic incident that sent Dan and his team on a quest to reduce falls with injuries involved a beloved mother and grandmother who was admitted with chest pain. “She was the patient that everyone loves. Sweet and charming, the piano and organ player at her church who made the town’s world-famous apple pies. Everybody loved this woman.”
Betty had undergone routine angioplasty and had a heart stent installed. The combination of medications, her history, and blood thinners scored her as high fall risk. “Our nursing staff did everything right,” Dan explained. Unfortunately, there was a large event occupying staff on the other side of the unit. “Betty didn’t want to bother anybody. After all, she just needed to use the rest room six feet away.” So, Betty got out of bed, stepping gingerly toward the rest room. She lost her balance and fell, injuring her head.
One determined nurse saw what systems could not see
Dan and the nursing staff were devastated, and Dan was determined to reduce falls with injury. “We had Stryker beds, which are fantastic beds, and Rauland nurse call, which is a great call system, but they didn’t talk to each other.” Dan spoke with both providers about his idea. “I told them: all I want is, when the bed exit alarm goes off, there is a distinct loud audible tone for the room and the light flashes yellow outside the room so the nurses’ station can see where the bed exit alarm is going off.”
The bed company said they could do that, but the hospital would need to revamp its entire system. The call light company said they could do it, but the hospital’s system was outdated and would need to be replaced. “I told them: You’re not listening to me. One, we don’t have the financial capital for that large of an investment. And two, all I want is when the bed exit alarm goes off, I want to hear it and see the room location outside in the hallway, so the nurses aren’t running around. I want quick response times to our rooms.”
Ask the company that “connects everything”
Dan was at his wits end trying to solve this “simple” problem, “and then one of my IT guys said we have this company Connexall that may be able to help.” Dan asked, “What’s Connexall?” He replied, “just like their name, they connect everything. Remember when we went from paper charting of vital signs to Philips patient monitors, but the monitors didn’t talk to our EMR? (electronic medical records system). Connexall built that for us.” That got Dan’s attention. “I already liked this company.” So, Dan called Connexall and explained what he wanted. “They said we can do that, no problem.” That was fantastic news for Dan, and even better: “It was an inexpensive and great fix.”
Dan got excited and proceeded to work with Connexall to implement chair exit alarms in the same manner, and to develop a reporting tool so he can see when a fall happens, was the brake set? Was the bed exit alarm set? Was the handrail in position? What was the time from bed exit alarm to the bed exit being turned off by staff in the room? “That was a game changer for us,” says Dan. “Once we could track this data, we could see where we were with response times.”
The results have been fantastic. “For upwards of five years since the implementation, we had zero falls with injury,” says Dan. “Our Leapfrog safety rating went from D to A. The improvements were also a tremendous staff satisfier. They reduced caregiver stress and worry that they would not be able to identify where the bed exit alarm was coming from so they could respond fast enough.”
So, every hospital could do what Dan did and reduce their falls, right?
Not so fast. “There is no cookie cutter solution,” says Connexall’s Fall Prevention Specialist Karl Clark. “What works in one facility may not work in another.” Each hospital uses different technologies (smart beds, nurse call systems, etc.), and nursing workflows differ based on unique unit and staffing needs.
“Our solution is designed to identify the challenges the facility is experiencing which are preventing them from reaching patients in time to keep falls from happening.” Two important pieces of the puzzle are clinical and technological. “Our Clinical Elevate team helps identify the challenges and works with our technical team to develop a solution that overcomes those challenges. If it doesn’t work on the clinical side, it won’t work. It’s technology and clinical knowledge and workflows working hand in hand to overcome unique challenges.”
The best solutions are built to fit, not forced
Each hospital system is different, and each nursing leadership team looks to Connexall for tailored solutions, such as:
- Provide a consistent audio/visual unassisted exit (bed, chair) alarm throughout the hospital, regardless of the technology being used.
- Monitor hospital bed status in real-time, to send an electronic “tap on the shoulder” when a bed is left unarmed and/or out of compliance beyond established parameters.
- Clinical consultation to enhance a hospital’s fall prevention practice based on industry best practice measures (TIPS), with additional Connexall integrated features, such as digital unit whiteboards with bed status, EMR-derived fall risk scores, rounding reminders, and in-room patient whiteboards.
- Connexall Reports to provide vital details on response times and bed alarm status, with associated “compliance alarms” (handrails up/down, brakes set/not set, and bed set in low position) to support a fall review process, identify issues, and make evidence-based adjustments to prevent future falls.
The combination of Connexall’s clinical and technical consultation with the hospital’s clinical and IT teams allows Connexall to identify areas where current technologies in use can be enhanced, and clinical workflows can be adjusted to leverage the existing technology. This provides the hospital with the tools they need and the workflows that support responding to patient fall events in seconds, not minutes.
Your hospital can reduce falls and improve your Leapfrog safety score like Dan did
“Each hospital unit’s solution might look different, but the result should be the same as Dan’s hospital,” says Karl. “Connexall’s Clinical Elevate team identifies the hospital’s challenges that are preventing them from getting to the patient in time. We build technology and workflow around those challenges so they can prevent falls they were unable to prevent prior to Connexall.”
Contact Karl Clark today to schedule a free consultation and learn how Connexall’s Fall Prevention Solution can reduce unassisted patient falls and improve your Leapfrog score.
Email: kclark@connexall.com
To learn more about the Connexall Fall Prevention Solution, download the Fall Prevention Report.
