System to Avoid Fall Events

Rinicare Ltd, a Lancaster-based SME, and University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay Trust (UHMB) will collaborate on a research study to determine the feasibility, suitability, and acceptability of the Rinicare developed SAFE (System to Avoid Fall Events) fall prevention and detection system in a hospital environment. The study is designed to determine if the implementation of the SAFE system will help clinicians to prevent in-patient falls from hospital beds. In-patient falls are a serious problem with more than 245,000 incidents reports in 2015-2016. 77% of these falls involve a patient over the age of 65, and the injuries patients suffer due to falls is estimated by NICE to cost the NHS £2.3B annually. This study will test the performance of the SAFE technologies against the current interventions to prevent falls, and it will investigate the impact of the SAFE technology on the workflow of the carers. The SAFE study is designed as a comparison study combining a descriptive, quantitative methodology measuring the number of fall events with a normative analysis of the qualitative aspects experienced by the clinicians using the SAFE system during the project period. The primary research objective of this study is to determine if the implementation of the SAFE system will quantifiably reduce the number of fall events in the ward compared to a similar control period. The secondary research objective is to determine if the SAFE system has a positive or a negative impact on the ward staff's workflow, i.e. the ability of the ward staff to provide care to the patients.