Predicting the RISK
A multi-state project to help operators of skilled nursing facilities and assisted living facilities improve their ability to better predict which residents are at risk for falling. This was announced by Simply Rehab LLC at the annual LSN (Life Services Network) convention in Chicago. This program also includes measurements that lead to appropriate preventative actions for the at risk resident. Falls among community dwelling older adults are a significant problem in the US with Medicare's cost of treating the injuries resulting from falls being close to $3 billion. Statistics gathered by CMS (The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services) report that for every 10 residents of nursing homes in the US, 5 falls are reported each year.
Simply Rehab LLC, a Northbrook, IL based company that provides physical, occupational, and speech therapy services to nursing homes and exercise programs to assisted living facilities, announced this project in which nursing homes in Illinois, Colorado and North Carolina have banded together to address this serious issue. The predictive methodology used in this project incorporates a unique collection of elements from the popular Berg Balance Scale Test taught in US Physical Therapy Programs along with improved predictive techniques reported by Oxford University in September of 2008. These techniques, known as AST (Alternate Step Test), STS-5 (Sit to Stand 5 times) and the SMWT (Six Meter Walk Test) were used in a multi-year study conducted by researchers at the Price of Wales Medical Research Institute in Randwick, Australia. In a study using 362 subjects aged 74-98 years, these methodologies proved to be superior to other popular techniques when predicting who would be a multiple faller.
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