We make it a habit to focus on the positives of aging, and there are many. But as caregivers, we’re also tasked with the challenging realities of aging and how to meet them with practical ideas and innovation.
One of those realities is that on average, people with dementia fall four times each year, and more than 25% of hospitalizations are due to falls. Even more sobering, 94% of those falls occur in the bedroom and are not witnessed by a nurse or caregiver. Most seniors with dementia can’t tell us how they fell, leaving families and caregivers to guess about what happened and how to keep it from happening again.
But this August, Traditions at North Willow took steps to change all of that. They partnered with SafelyYou, a leader in artificial intelligence-enabled fall detection and prevention.
The SafelyYou system consists of mounted cameras in consenting residents’ bedrooms and sophisticated artificial intelligence that directly analyzes real-time video to detect falls. Fall video is immediately available to help staff determine cause and severity of the fall, including if injuries were sustained.
Falls are detected with 99% accuracy, and onsite caregivers are notified immediately by work phone and/or nurse call system.
No one is watching the video live, there is no audio, and videos that are unrelated to a fall are deleted within minutes. There are no wearable devices that require action by the resident, and a strict adherence to privacy standards.
Immediate notification, faster response times and access to fall video translate to 80% fewer visits to the ER. And SafelyYou helps the care team learn from each fall to reduce risk now and moving forward.
“We are very excited about SafelyYou at North Willow,” said Maggie Stordy, Community Relations Director. “The program helps us remove speculation about how and why falls happen, allows us to eliminate those risks for the future and provide additional peace of mind to our families that their loved ones are safe with us.”
This August, North Willow rolled the SafelyYou program out to consenting residents and families in Memory Care and is now live throughout the building.
To learn more about North Willow’s SafelyYou program, contact Maggie Stordy, North Willow Community Relations Director at 317-876-2916.
