The primary use of the Bed Alarm is the alert the caregiver that the patient is 'getting up' from bed and may need assistance to avoid a fall.  They can be very effective when used in home settings - especially during the night when falls often happen.

Summary of CMS Regulation with Smart Caregiver compliant solutions:

By using Smart Caregiver’s Quiet Cordless Alerts with weight-sensing bed, chair and floor mats, the resident is not physically and/or psychologically restricted.

Again, by using Smart Caregiver’s Quiet Cordless Alerts with weight- sensing bed, chair and floor mats, the resident is not physically and/or psychologically restricted.

NursingHomeAids.com has components that remove alarm noise from room and do not cause the restraint issue.

We recently spoke to representatives from Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services regarding the CMS Regulations and we received the powerful statement that alerts CAN be used when deemed necessary and are vital to the safety of patients. They also stated the regulation was incorrectly interpreted by the consultants and staff stating to remove all alarms. This regulation is being routinely misinterpreted by Staff and Consultants.

What is extremely important for the facility’s staff, is education. Staff should talk to patients as to why the CordLess weight-sensing pads are being used. They are used to help care for the them.

1.The staff should NEVER advise the resident that the pad and alert is used to notify them when they get up, this would be considered a physical and psychological restraint. A huge No-No!

2.The staff should state that the alert is there to help care for the patient, this is acceptable and would not be considered a restraint.

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CAREGIVER STRESS: REMEMBERING TO TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF

When an aging parent or loved begins to show signs of memory loss it is natural be concerned. Cognitive health ranks as a top priority for older Americans, second only to physical independence, and any changes should be noted.

But ‘senior moments’ happen to everyone, and according to Dr. Heidi White, a geriatrician at Duke University Medical Center, most often the only prescription necessary is patience. “The speed at which we process information is one aspect of brain function that normally slows with age. With a little time, the (forgotten) word or name can be retrieved.”

Alzheimer’s is rare, but there are warning signs that can help you distinguish between true symptoms of dementia and non-serious senior moments. TheAlzheimer’s Association publishes a widely accepted list of ten: (CLICK LINK)

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EARLY SIGNS OF DEMENTIA AND ALZHEIMERS

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MAKING YOUR HOME DEMENTIA FRIENDLY

Fall prevention alarms signal family and staff members that a loved one or a patient may require assistance to get up or move such as to use the restroom. Compromised health can lead normally strong and balanced individuals to slip or tumble resulting in detrimental damage. Fitting a chair or bed with a sensor pad alarm can assure the patient and care provider (caregiver) that assistance will be available when needed.

Bed and chair bound patients are not the only ones that require fall prevention devices. Many times, simple tasks such as walking, bathing, toileting, or general transport can cause an afflicted individual to slip or tumble. Consider added protection such as non-skid socks, floor mats, and mounted hand rails to encourage safe activity.

Our fall prevention product line includes: Quiet fall prevention monitoring, wireless mobility monitoring to a caregiver pager, weight-sensing sensor pads for bed and chair fall monitors, Cordless® weight-sensing floor sensor mats, injury-reducing, soft impact landing mats, EZ release wheelchair seat belt fall monitor systems, anti-wandering door systems, wireless central monitoring with nurse call and paging and much more. Many products are designed to prevent elopement for someone with dementia, Alzheimer’s, etc., or for a resident who is at high risk of falls in order to alert caregiver with silent passive early warning via a caregiver pager. This is just one example of the variety of products available for you to help prevent falls and elopement for your residents or your clients. Call us or your distributor if you’d like some guidance.

We find that many of our customers looking for home care products are making their very first purchase of this type of product.  Because they are seeing these products for the first time, all the variety and options can be a bit confusing.  That's why we offer full pre-sale and post sale support through - phone, email, or chat services.  Just let us know the issue you're trying to solve, and we can make recommendations based upon our full line of caregiver products.  In almost every case, we can find a solution to help you deal with - nearly - every concern.

That's why it's important to purchase from a 'Full-Service" provider (which WE are).  These are not the kinds of products that you would want to purchase from a general retail giant that know nothing about the products they sell.  

NursingHomeAids has the quality products - full support - and expert help to guide you to the proper solution!

• Take the sensor pad that comes with the alarm and put it on the mattress that’s being used.

• Place a fitted bed sheet over the mattress to help keep the bed pad in place.

• Position the pad under the hips of the user

• Turn on fall alarm when weight is applied to sensor pad

Problems with Having a Bed Alarm for Seniors

Bed alarms aren’t always perfect. Here are a few issues you may have if you decide to buy one:

• If your mom or dad, husband or wife, has a tendency to move a lot while in bed, the bed pad alarm may go off more than desired. If they are a good sleeper, you shouldn’t worry about this.

• A bed alarm won`t prevent all falls, but it will certainly give you a head start.

• The sound is annoying! Hearing the alarm go off is menacing, especially when you’re sleeping yourself, but it`s really a small price to pay to keep your family member safe.

Basically, a bed alarm does is alert you when a person lifts their weight off the bed.  The Monitor will be triggered and the bed sensor alarm will sound.  This gives you more than enough time to respond before they make it completely out of bed.  Using bed alarms for fall prevention is a very smart idea.

Falling out of bed can be a very serious issue for the elderly. If you or I fell out of bed, we`d probably get up and shake it off. The elderly, on the other hand, can get severely injured in the process or may be stuck on the floor for hours waiting for help. Or broken bones and skin tears as the result of falling. Surprisingly, even a broken neck!

Top 6 Best Rated Bed Alarms for Seniors:

1. Wireless (Cordfree) Bed Alarm and Bed Pad/no Alarm in Patient’s Room

2. Complete Cordless Bed Exit Monitoring System In a box

3.  Basic Fall In-Room Monitor With Weight Sensing 20x30 Corded Bed Pad

4.  Economy In-Room Monitor With Chair and Bed Pad Combo

5.  Cordless Fall Monitor (TL-2100G) and 20X30 Bed Pad

Using a bed alarm for the elderly is not only a smart idea, but also a reasonable investment. We use bed alarms in our nursing home for residents that are at a risk of falling, and they help notify us when someone needs assistance. They limit the number of falls drastically.

If you’re looking for bed and chair alarms for elderly patients, you might consider buying a combo pack that includes a monitor, a bed sensor pad, and a chair pad. It could save you a little money upfront if you can see yourself using them both in the future.

Whatever fall prevention alarms you do decide to use, we recommend buying an ac adapter. Most of the alarms we listed above can be powered using batteries, but using a constant supply of electricity is more reliable than battery power. However, if the power does go out, the batteries do make a good plan b.

A bed alarm costs $50-$200, peace of mind is priceless!

Keep your loved ones safe and pick up a bed alarm for seniors!

6 in 10 people with dementia will wander** Alzheimer’s Association, www.alz.org

We offer a host of anti-wandering and mobility monitoring solutions that are:

• Affordable
• Effective
• DIY (Do it yourself) Meaning they do not require expensive service contracts.
• Quiet
• CordLess®
• Patented

In the pages that follow you will find a variety of anti-wandering and mobility monitoring solutions ranging from caregiver pagers with exit alarm to soothing programmable voice monitors that will alert a resident with a familiar voice to anti-wandering door bar systems for memory care facilities.

Some are simple, easy to use, passive, motion sensors that send a signal to a Caregiver pager or a remote alarm like the TL-5102MP

By using one of our CordLess® floor matsyou remove the noise from the resident‘s room.

When a resident stand on a pressure sensing floor Mat a wireless signal is sent to a CordLess® Monitor TL-2100G,433-EC or a central Nurses Station, 433-CMU.

The CAREGIVER IS ALERTED Audible and visually by a nurse call station, fall prevention monitor or by pager.

Another Product well suited for Memory care is the Recordable Voice Monitor (Caregivers or family members can record a personalized message, like “Please sit tight Mrs. Jones” or a residents choice of music).

Patented Technology

CordLess® technology:
Not to be confused with wireless technology, Cordless means no cords, and therefore no tripping or entanglement hazard from loose cords near the floor or bedside. We offer a complete patented line Smart Caregiver CordLess® pressure sensing devices such as exit mat, floor mats, impact landing mats, pressure pads for beds and pressure pads for chairs. All have a built-in patented transmitter that will send a wireless signal to a quieter anti-wandering or fall prevention monitor typically placed outside a resident’s room to minimize noise disturbance for the resident and facility.

Why is this patented technology so important?

Quite often, people who suffer from dementia can become agitated by loud sounds. Smart’s patented quiet, CordLess® technology offers quieter monitoring, via an adjustable volume control that minimizes noise and disruption to a facility and its residents. With its adjustable volume, and by placing the CordLess® monitor away from the resident in the hall at its quietest setting, you can maintain safety without causing unnecessary disturbance. It also has a bright blinking raised button that offers a visual alarm to on-duty caregivers.

TamperProof™ Caregiver Key™:
With dementia patients, it is critical in that ONLY the Caregiver can reset the monitor when a resident attempts to exit. People with dementia may not be able to remember their name, but they can still figure out how to reset or disable their monitoring devices.

The caregiver key is a patented trademarked key that when placed over a designated spot on the monitor or DepartAlert™ door system will reset the monitor and stop it from alarming. This information then becomes an integral part of a caregiver’s assessment of patient mobility based on how frequently they are getting out of bed.

By keeping track of frequency how often a resident’s alarm needs to be reset, (patient mobility) a facility can more efficiently allocate limited caregiver resources to attend to those residents who are more likely to wander. By keeping track of how frequently a patient is mobile, the patented TamperProof™ caregiver key effectively helps reduce the risk of elopement. This provides valuable information for caregivers, and further aids in establishing a more cohesive risk assessment for each resident.

Motion Sensor to Pager: TL-5102MP

This is a simple, easy to use anti-wandering system that includes a wireless Infrared motion sensor that wirelessly sends a signal to a pager. The best part is that it affordable only $49.95.

WMFM1-SYS – Wireless Exit Mat System to a pager:

This system includes our weight sensing Floor Mat (FM-03), monitor (TL-2016) and pager (TL-2016P). As mentioned above, some dementia residents are frightened by loud noise. This system can be set to SILENT! Thus keeping the facility and the residents room QUIET!

How it works:
Simply plug a weight sensing floor mat into the monitor. This can be placed at the bedside or doorway for each resident that needs to be monitored. As soon as a resident steps on the weight sensing mat it will alert the caregiver via a wireless pager. This is an inexpensive solution that is perfect for private residences or any memory care or dementia facility.

It will come pre-programmed to a pager as needed. Multiple rooms/residents can be quietly monitored with one or multiple pagers. This system can also work with central monitors, pagers, cell phones, hall way emergency call lights, etc…

Smart Caregiver Corporation Anti-Wandering Solutions:

GFM1-SYS – CordLess® Anti-wandering monitor and quiet exit alarm system:

The GFM1-SYS includes our PatentedCordLess® Anti-wandering monitor, and a 24” x 48” ( Gray) floor mat with beveled edges. Because there are no cords, this patented technology eliminates any tripping hazards associated with other floor mats. When a resident attempts to exit, the caregiver will be notified by a quieter audible alarm with bright blinking light placed in the hall. Dementia patients often have a fear of floor mats as they appear to be a hole in the floor so they try to avoid, thus causing falls. The gray color of the floor mat helps to alleviate that fear. What’s more, as mentioned above, Smart’s CordLess® technology offers minimal of noise and disruption to a facility and its residents

TL-3005SYSR2 – DepartAlert™ Anti-wandering door bar system:

The key benefits are that it is easy to install; is DIY; meaning that it is plug and play and does not require a maintenance contract to install or service. And, it effectively can monitor as many residents as needed by a memory care facility. Also available with two door bars (TL-3004SYSR2)
How it works:
Simply place the door bar near any doorway that needs to be monitored. The resident wears a wristband transmitter, similar to a watch. This will trigger the door bar when the resident is near the door. As a resident approaches a door a visual and audible alert will sound alerting caregivers that a resident may be attempting to exit. These also can include door locks for high risk situations, contact switches to alert as the door is opened, wireless key pads so only a caregiver with a code can reset the alarm thus alleviating potential resident tampering. This system can also work with central monitors, pagers, cell phones, hall way emergency call lights, etc… It will come pre-programmed to a pager as needed. Multiple rooms/residents can be quietly monitored with one or multiple pagers.