Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They need a bed with side rails, not fall mats.

Assuming side rails are permitted (not typical as others have described) they are not the best option in every case. For a patient in their right mind who only needs protection from accidentally rolling or sliding out of bed, they are a good safety measure if the patient is willing. They can be a good safety measure for a patient who is fully sedated and, again, needs protection from rolling or sliding out of bed. For a demented patient they can be extremely dangerous. Patients get caught up in them and try to climb over, increasing their fall height. The fact that a rented hospital bed might come with rails is meaningless.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:95 year old mother was hospitalized again after a fall. The highly rated assisted living facility she is at checks on her every 2 hours at night. They claimed to have checked on her at 2am and she was asleep but they found her on the floor at 3am. There are restraint laws in Virginia that prevent her from being belted into the bed. The staff seems helpful but not overly concerned. Anyone have experience with using fall mats next to the bed to prevent injury? We are starting the process of looking for a night aid to hire to ensure that she does not get out of bed on her own but that may take a week or more to get into place. Any ideas appreciated.

It's time for your mother to go to a nursing home, where she can be supervised more closely.

Anonymous wrote:They need a bed with side rails, not fall mats.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Exhausted from last night and haven't had a chance to read all replies yet but wanted to share that we learned mom was prescribed a med by the ER doctor after her second fall. Not blaming the sibling who was informed but that sib believed the med was for anxiety. Turns out it was a pain med, narcotic category that has side effects such as increased anxiety, restlessness and frequency of urination/urge to urinate. All things mom was experiencing. She can't be her own patient advocate any longer so we need to be and to pay more attention to meds and research them. Trying it with her off of the Tramadol. More later and thanks again for all of your input. Siblings and I were not prepared and we feel bad about everything. We'll do better.

Anonymous wrote:95 year old mother was hospitalized again after a fall. The highly rated assisted living facility she is at checks on her every 2 hours at night. They claimed to have checked on her at 2am and she was asleep but they found her on the floor at 3am. There are restraint laws in Virginia that prevent her from being belted into the bed. The staff seems helpful but not overly concerned. Anyone have experience with using fall mats next to the bed to prevent injury? We are starting the process of looking for a night aid to hire to ensure that she does not get out of bed on her own but that may take a week or more to get into place. Any ideas appreciated.

Anonymous wrote:I'm one of the early PPs who pointed out to the OP that hospice isn't 24/7 and that it requires a prognosis of 6 months to live or less. I know from our experience trying to get hospice care for my father when his Alzheimers was very advanced (unable to walk, unable to self-care, unable to eat solid foods, etc.)

Dementia and/or old age alone will not qualify a patient for hospice. I forget the precise qualifiers but a google search will turn them up. One was a certain percentage of weight loss, another was being able to speak less than 6 words. My dad was rejected when we first investigated and then somehow qualified a few months later. He was in an excellent memory care facility, part of a much larger continuing care community, but the hospice services and personnel were a godsend. Unlike the nursing staff, their entire focus is on the patient's comfort. But as a visiting service, hospice doesn't fill the role of regular medical or nursing staff - they consult with the doctors and nurses and may take over some responsibilities like bathing on occasion, but visiting hospice isn't a substitute for nurses or nursing aides or doctors.

I don't have much direct experience with hospices houses, although I know that other relatives w/terminal diagnoses had excellent experiences in this setting. We investigated that for my dad, but it made no sense to move him from an environment in which he was well cared for.

Final point on the fall issue: as a rule, nighttime is a really really difficult for the elderly. Falling is a big problem, but so is wandering and sleeplessness. Other than paying for a 24/7 "sitter" it's a really tricky issue to solve - medication doesn't always work, it can compound the fall risk, restraints are illegal in many places because of the risks posed &/or ineffectiveness, etc.

The best advice I'd give someone with an elderly parent in poor condition is to speak with a palliative care specialist. Even if your parent isn't ready for hospice, they can help you think through what kind of care is best aligned with your parent's needs and preferences, and how to make sure the focus is on quality of life.

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Exhausted from last night and haven't had a chance to read all replies yet but wanted to share that we learned mom was prescribed a med by the ER doctor after her second fall. Not blaming the sibling who was informed but that sib believed the med was for anxiety. Turns out it was a pain med, narcotic category that has side effects such as increased anxiety, restlessness and frequency of urination/urge to urinate. All things mom was experiencing. She can't be her own patient advocate any longer so we need to be and to pay more attention to meds and research them. Trying it with her off of the Tramadol. More later and thanks again for all of your input. Siblings and I were not prepared and we feel bad about everything. We'll do better.