Designing a Patient Room as a Fall Protection Strategy: The Perspectives of Healthcare Design Experts.

Despite decades of research into patient falls, there is a dearth of evidence about how the design of patient rooms influences falls. Our multi-year study aims to better understand how patient room design can increase stability during ambulation, serving as a fall protection strategy for frail and/or elderly patients. The aim of this portion of the study was to ascertain the architect's perspective on designing a room to mitigate the risk of falls, as well as to evaluate the face validity of a predictive algorithm to assess risk in room design using the input of a design advisory council (AC).

Hospital bed height influences biomechanics during bed egress: A comparative controlled study of patients with Parkinson disease.

Although a significant proportion of patient falls occur during egress from the hospital bed, the biomechanical adaptations during egress from different bed heights are still largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of hospital bed height on natural transition during egress in patients with Parkinson disease (PD). Twelve patients with PD and fourteen healthy elderly adults (HEA) were recruited and the natural transition during egress from three different bed heights (low, medium and high) were recorded for each participant using a motion capture system and force plates.