Monitoring of bedridden patients: Development of a fall detection tool

Abstract:

                    Generically, a fall is an unexpected event in which the subject comes to rest on the ground, floor, or lower level. A single fall may result in death, severe lesions or simply a fear of falling that can begin a downward spiral of reduced mobility, leading to loss of function and greater risk of falls. Falls of patients are an important issue in hospitals; it causes severe injuries to the patients, increases hospitalization time and treatment costs. The detection of a fall, in time, provides faster rescue to the patient, preventing more serious injuries, as well as saving nursing time. The MovinSense is an electronic device designed for monitoring patients to prevent pressure sores, and the main goal of this work was to develop a new tool for this device, with the purpose of detecting if the patient has fallen from the hospital bed, without changing any of the device original features. Experiments for gathering data samples of inertial signals of falling from the bed were obtained using the device. For fall detection a sensitivity of 72% and specificity of 100% were reached. Another algorithm was developed to detect if the patient got out of his/her bed.