title: REFINE (Reducing Falls in In-patient Elderly)--a randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Falls in hospitals are common, resulting in injury and anxiety to patients, and large costs to NHS organisations. More than half of all in-patient falls in elderly people in acute care settings occur at the bedside, during transfers or whilst getting up to go to the toilet. In the majority of cases these falls are unwitnessed. There is insufficient evidence underpinning the effectiveness of interventions to guide clinical staff regarding the reduction of falls in the elderly inpatient. New patient monitoring technologies have the potential to offer advances in falls prevention. Bedside sensor equipment can alert staff, not in the immediate vicinity, to a potential problem and avert a fall. However no studies utilizing this assistive technology have demonstrated a significant reduction in falls rates in a randomised controlled trial setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  The research design is an individual patient randomised controlled trial of bedside chair and bed pressure sensors, incorporating a radio-paging alerting mode to alert staff to patients rising from their bed or chair, across five acute elderly care wards in Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust. Participants will be randomised to bedside chair and bed sensors or to usual care (without the use of sensors). The primary outcome is the number of bedside in-patient falls.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The REFINE study is the first randomised controlled trial of bedside pressure sensors in elderly inpatients in an acute NHS Trust. We will assess whether falls can be successfully and cost effectively reduced using this technology, and report on its acceptability to both patients and staff.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ageing and Rehabilitation, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, NG7 2UH, UK. catherine.vass@nottingham.ac.uk
authors.forename: Catherine D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Vass
authors.forename: Opinder
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sahota
authors.forename: Avril
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Drummond
authors.forename: Denise
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Kendrick
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Gladman
authors.forename: Tracey
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sach
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Avis
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Grainge
mesh_terms: D000058:Accidental Falls / Q000517:prevention & control*; D000368:Aged; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients