Alarm Radio Monitoring (ARM) has added a new product to its range of wireless nurse call and staff alarm systems – the Bed Angel. The unobtrusive ceiling-mounted Bed Angel creates a circle of care over the sleeping resident, using thermal imaging to monitor the bed and the area directly around it. If a resident leaves the bed, goes to the bathroom and does not return within the allocated time, falls or exits the room, care home staff are alerted immediately.
Bed Angel is extremely responsive and has three risk settings - the High Risk mode even pre-empts possible incidents by alerting staff if a person throws back the bed covers or sits up. It can also help staff to identify patterns of behaviour in a resident that may suggest an underlying issue, such as frequent toilet visits.
Supporting Independence, Ensuring Safety
Bed Angel provides a holistic alarm solution developed around each resident’s specific needs. It has a wide variety of standard settings and easily enabled add-ons:
- Out of Bed – triggers an alarm when the resident gets out of bed (medium risk setting)
- Light Guidance - turns bedside and bathroom lights on when the resident gets out of bed then off again when they get back in safely, sending an alert if they do not return within a pre-set time
- Fall Detection - triggers an alarm if a heat signature in the fall detection zone remains immobile for a pre-set amount of time, indicating an event
- Wireless Door Contacts - alerts staff if anyone enters or exits the room
- Wireless Ceiling Pull Cords - activates a resident call from the en-suite
The system requires no bed mats or electronic sensors, with their associated cables and potentially dangerous trailing leads. It works on the existing ARM nurse call system and can be installed quickly and easily with minimum disruption.
Addressing Falls in Care Homes
Statistics published by Help the Aged show that older people living in care homes are three times more likely to fall than those living in the community. Certain activities, such as getting up to use the bathroom at night, can be considered high risk because of the specific interaction of personal risk factors involved relating to, for example, a person’s strength, balance and walking, but also to environmental factors such as their inability to use a call bell to get help, lack of lighting and lower staffing levels at night.
The Bed Angel is designed to address all these environmental issues, allowing residents to retain their independence and dignity within a discreetly monitored environment, and reassuring families that their loved ones are being cared for at all times. As well as the suffering incurred, falls divert staff from planned care and can lead to litigation, complaints and bad publicity. It is clearly vital that fall prevention and management forms part of quality improvement and health and safety monitoring in any care home, and the Bed Angel can play an important role in supporting this.
“We have been trialling the Bed Angel, and I have found the system to be amazing. I particularly like the fact that you can be person-centred and tailor this system to the individual resident’s room. It enables the staff to be proactive in responding to each resident’s needs and gives the residents the freedom and independence to move in and out of bed, knowing that if for whatever reason they are unable to get back into bed, help is at hand.”
Lindsay Giess: Care Manager, Hendra House, Ludlow
