Alarm Sensors: Evaluating the Effectiveness in Reducing Elderly Inpatient Falls Jenna Barnwell, RN Jessica Cantrell, RN Sabrina George, RN Whitney Holman, RN Clinical Problem What interventions could be implemented to decrease the occurrence of elderly inpatient falls and the injuries that often accompany them? PICO Question In hospitalized patients over age 65, can the use of alarm sensors reduce accidental falls? Literature Review Articles were found through the use of medical databases such as, CINAHL full text, Medline, Cochrane Library, and ProQuest Nursing and Allied Health Source. Mapping was utilized to search for topics, using our own keywords. Keywords that were used included: accidental falls, elderly, sensory systems, alarms, safety, inpatient, and injuries. All studies that were selected were randomized-controlled trails (RCTs). Bias cannot be completely avoided, however by selecting RCTs bias can be minimized. Literature Synthesis According to Sands, Hignett, Youde, & Griffiths (2010), since the 1940s, inpatient falls have been the largest single occurring hospital incident. Falls cause significant morbidity and mortality and have a high prevalence after a patient is admitted to a hospital. Much research has been conducted to determine interventions that can aid in the reduction of these inpatient falls. One such intervention is the use of alarm systems. A randomized trial was conducted over an 18 month period, and included education and training on the use and promotion of bed alarms. Bed alarms were used days out of 1000 days, and the study included an intervention and control group. In this study, with the implementation of bed alarms, the fall rate did not change, so there was no clinical significance (Shorr et al., 2012). In another study with 1839 randomized participants, there were 85 inpatient falls in the intervention group using bed alarms, compared to 83 falls in the control group that did not use bed alarms (Sahota et al., 2014). Out of four studies that were researched and reviewed, the overall conclusion was that implementation of inpatient bed and chair alarms were not cost efficient or effective in preventing inpatient falls on their own. Nursing Implications Nurses should remain precautious about the risk of patient falls even while using an alarm system. Nurses should educate patients about their risk for a fall and the importance of asking for help before getting out of bed. Nurses should evaluate patients daily for mobility level and falls risk. Further Research Many of the studies found that using an alarm system on its own was not effective in preventing falls in the hospital setting. However, there was not extensive research about other interventions that could be effective. Research proved that there is a high rate of inpatient falls among the elderly population and these falls contribute to many preventable injuries. Though alarm systems are not completely effective in preventing these injuries, other types of interventions should be implemented along with alarm systems. It is recommended that further research be done to determine if other interventions, such as patient teaching and daily falls risk evaluation, combined with alarm systems would be effective in decreasing fall rates.