Alarms: Do They Do More Harm Than Good?

What role do alarms play in today’s nursing homes—do they really keep people safe?

Or are they over-used? When alarms were first introduced in nursing homes they were part of the effort to remove restraints. They were intended as a means of getting to know a resident’s routine, so that their individual needs could be met.  However, today alarms are used in many homes on a major portion of the residents.  For many people alarms are the new restraints. They cause people to feel isolated, dependent and afraid to move. Homes that use them with great frequency have not reduced falls.

The current practice in most nursing homes is to put a chair or bed alarm on people who demonstrate a risk of falling. This is a one-size-fits-all approach that, in the name of preventing risks can actually contribute to other risks – the risk of isolation, depression, and malnutrition, loss of mobility, sleep depravation, and skin breakdown. Instead of alarms, we can actually promote good health by helping people with their mobility. This actually strengthens them, decreases the danger of injury from falls, and allows us to respond to their needs instead of to the alarms. We need to recognize the value of a good night’s sleep, which is hard to have when you’ve got alarms on at night.

Click here to read about how she did it in a case study Davison prepared for MassPRO, called Nursing Home Alarm Elimination Program: It’s Possible to Reduce Falls by Eliminating Resident Alarms.

For additional information about alarms, read the following article, Rader_RethinkingUsePositionAlarms_072208.final.doc by Joanne Rader, Cathie Brady, and Barbara Frank. This article was prepared for Quality Partners of Rhode Island.

Experience alarms yourself. Wear an alarm for half an hour. That’s what the management team did at Quaboag on the Common in North Brookfield, MA. Hear what it was like for them and then try it yourself.