The topic of updated QoL (“Quality of Life”) care in nursing homes and assisted living facilities is one that merits – whether you’re talking about how it was in the 1980s, the early 2000s, or especially now in 2023 – a very, very careful nuance. QoL, in easy terms, covers the physical health, the mental and emotional well-being, the varying levels of independence (within supportive environments), and the nurturing of social skills for a diverse groups of residents within facilities. QoL is a topic that unfortunately became especially inflamed during and after the COVID-19 pandemic; per the National Library of Medicine (NLM), the National Center for Biotechnology Information and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the QoL for “approximately 1.5 million facility residents in the U.S.” is noted to be “undoubtedly lower than ideally desired by residents, families, and providers, as well as by policy makers representing QoL for these populations.” There is a need for interventions that “are tied to the standardized measurement and overall improvement of QoL programs.”
That’s for sure. Both hospitalization and mortality rates have risen concerningly since 2018-2019, and the pandemic didn’t help.
None of this is to say that professionals in, this field aren’t working hard enough for the residents in need, QoL-wise. Certainly not.
Still, QoL-preserving changes are welcome.
Enter the joint work of Vayyar and SenSights.AI in Ontario, Canada; specifically, at one of the largest long-term care and skilled nursing facilities with more than 250 seniors from the Ontario area. The facility, already a provider of specialized mental health care and physical rehabilitation services, has joined forces with Vayyar and SenSights.AI for the deployment of a new, innovative fall detection system for those requiring that level of care.
Falls, according to the World Health Organization, are currently ranked as “the second-leading cause of unintentional injury deaths worldwide;” 684,000 individuals estimated are unfortunately dying from falls globally each year, with adults older than 60 years of age suffering the greatest number of fatal falls. Falls also account for 85% of the injury-related hospitalizations amongst seniors and are responsible for 95% of hip fractures in that age group, according to the CDC.
So, the new Vayyar and SenSights.AI solution aims to address chronic falls for seniors, especially those with complex medical conditions and mobility issues. This, in theory, will significantly enhance resident safety and overall QoL.
The specifics:
- The comprehensive Vayyar + SenSights.AI solution involves both software and hardware components and utilizes facilities’ existing Wi-Fi connections for the device-responder communication.
- It is designed with Vayyar’s Touchless Fall Detection sensors (e.g. radar-on-chip technologies that “swiftly identify falls and enable timely intervention and care with advanced 4D imaging technology.” This is also a camera-free approach, so seniors “can be aided with dignity” while benefitting from enhanced, digitized safety.
- It is also designed with SenSights.AI remote patient monitoring (RPM) software, empowering caregivers with notifications, care trends, and historical data.
The CDC has also reported that the economic impact of falls costs over $50 billion on an annual basis to the U.S. and $29.4 billion to Canada. Neither of those are small (or ignorable) figures. Novel deployment challenges presented by the pandemic, as we mentioned, haven’t helped these statistics, either. That’s why this solution is poised to help reduce nurses’ monthly night shifts (especially concerning dementia patients). It will also optimize caregiver efficiency when abroad; i.e. a reduction in nurse travel time and average time per patient reduced while simultaneously upping valuable health resource availability. We’re also talking about improvements to other crucial resident activities, including average bed and bath times, the monitoring of appropriate R&R levels for residents, and more.
Thus, Ontario officials should be very pleased by the IoT-powered results from Vayyar and SenSights.AI.
Edited by
Greg Tavarez
