Early Fall Risk Detection and Fall Prevention Among Inpatients With Delirium (QumPreFall)

University Department of Geriatric Medicine FELIX PLATTER

Status

Enrolling

Conditions

Bed Falls

Delirium Superimposed on Dementia

Delirium in Old Age

Fall

Treatments

Device: Qumea

Study type

Observational

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT05391334

QumEKNZV2

Details and patient eligibility

About

During delirium patients are at risk of severe harm due to unattended bed-exits resulting in falls. This research intends to explore how effective alarming contact mats (CareMat®) in comparison to contactless bed-exit alarming devices (Qumea®) are to reduce the risk of unattended bed-exits and falls.

Full description

Delirium is a neuropsychiatric disorder with a sudden and reversible decline in attention and cognition due to a medical condition.8 Delirium is associated with emotional distress for patients, their relatives and medical staff.3-5 During delirium, patients are at risk of severe harm due to unattended bed-exits and subsequent falls.6, 7 As worldwide strategy, sitters are used for the prevention of harm in patients with delirium. However, evidence of the effectiveness of sitters is scant.9 A newly designed specialised acute care unit for older patients with delirium, the FELIX PLATTER delirium unit (DelirUnit), strives to overcome the aforementioned shortcomings. On the DelirUnit there are no physical barriers such as bed rails to prevent patients from bed-exits. Floor beds minimize injuries when patients leave their beds unattended. Specialised nurses and nursing aides care for this vulnerable patient group. Sitters are banned. As an alternative to sitters, nurses are informed about patients' intended bed-exit by electronic alarming contact mats at the bedside or in front of beds (CareMat®) or by a novel contactless radar-based bed-exit monitoring system (Qumea®). Up until now, evidence for the effectiveness of technical devices for fall risk prevention is low. This research intends to explore how effective contact mats (CareMat®) or contactless bed-exit alarming devices (Qumea®) are in fall risk detection and fall prevention.

Enrollment

78 estimated patients

Sex

All

Ages

65+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Admission at or transferal to DelirUnit. During Covid pandemic, patients will be enrolled into the study after the second negative Covid swab (PCR).

Exclusion criteria

Patients who have been sectioned and must be treated in a facility, whether they agree or not (under the mental health act) (Fürsorgliche Unterbringung).

No proxy consent available due to language barriers;

Missing legal proxy in case of lacking family network