𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙇𝙞𝙛𝙚 𝙬𝙞𝙩𝙝 𝙍𝙚𝙖𝙡-𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙡𝙙 𝙋𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙊𝙪𝙩𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚𝙨
𝘈 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘉𝘦𝘥 𝘌𝘹𝘪𝘵 𝘔𝘰𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘺𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘗𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘍𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴
Falls during inpatient stays are common, especially among the elderly who have mobility or cognitive impairment. Such falls may result in injuries like fractures, affecting recovery and length of stay.
“Majority of falls occur by the bedside. Elderly patients who have impaired mobility and cognition often forget to press the call bell for help, for example, when going to the bathroom,” explained Ms Wendy Leong, Senior Nurse Manager, Nursing Quality, Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH).
To prevent such falls for high-risk patients, the Nursing Team developed a novel patient monitoring system to help predict and detect patient movements.
Called PreSAGE, the system is based on thermal imaging and video analytics. The thermal sensors are installed in the patient's room to provide continuous monitoring, and the system triggers an alarm with flashing lights outside their room when a potential bed exit is predicted. The predictive feature of PreSAGE provides an early warning, giving nurses more lead time to respond and assist patients before they exit the bed to prevent falls. The alarm automatically deactivates when the system detects a second person in close proximity to the patient, indicating that the patient is being assisted.
Jointly developed with CoNEX Healthcare and supported by NHG’s Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations (CMTi), PreSAGE was piloted in TTSH in 2021. As of May 2024, the system has been scaled to more than 100 beds across all single-bed and isolation rooms in TTSH. Early results showed a 42% reduction in falls rate and 5 hours of nursing manpower saved a day. PreSAGE has also been adopted by other hospitals and nursing homes in Singapore.
“PreSAGE has helped enhanced patient safety and reduced our admin work, allowing us to focus more on direct nursing care. This is unlike other fall prevention tools such as weight-sensing mats on mattresses which are activated only when patients are already out of bed. Such tools also require us to manually activate and deactivate them,” shared Ms Tan Qi Ying, Nurse Clinician, TTSH who works in the ward where PreSAGE was piloted.
Ms Leong and her team are currently testing the system in a room with multiple patients before rolling it out across all wards in TTSH.
