Nursing homes find bed, chair alarms do more harm than good

Walk the halls of Hebrew Rehabilitation Center in Roslindale and you’ll be struck by what you don’t hear: the beep, beep, beep of alarms. Typically, care facilities attach alarms to beds and wheelchairs of patients considered at risk of falling. The pressure-sensitive devices have been used since physical restraints were outlawed in the 1990s. But do alarms really keep residents safer? Are they worth the price of leaving them in fear of making the slightest move, interrupting their sleep and that of their roommates, and driving nurses and nursing aides to distraction every time one goes off? Hebrew SeniorLife is a Harvard Medical School affiliate.

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