Bed exit prediction based on movement and posture data

Abstract

Falls in nursing homes and hospitals take often place immediately after a bed exit of a patient. An alarm signaling the exit from the bed may already be too late for staff to react. In this paper we explore the possibilities of detecting the sequences of preparatory movements before the bed exit and in this way create an early warning of the preparation of bed exit. The method is described and tested using annotated accelerometer data collected from volunteers. A plausibility assessment is also done by comparing accelerometer data from hospital patients with the output of a bed alarm system. It is demonstrated that the proposed method is able to detect a bed exit already seconds before the patient actually leaves the bed.