Do Sitters Prevent Falls for High-Risk Inpatients?

Because nearly 1 million inpatient falls occur annually in U.S. acute care hospitals, bedside sitters frequently are employed to prevent falls in high-risk patients, at substantial expense to hospitals. Authors of this systematic review identified 20 studies — no randomized trials and mostly time-series or pre–post studies — in which researchers evaluated the effects of bedside sitters for adult patients on non–intensive care wards at acute care hospitals.

Two small studies of adding sitters to usual care as an intervention to prevent falls yielded inconsistent results: In one, the fall rate was lowered; in the other, it was not. In the other 18 studies, various alternatives to sitter use were evaluated. Moderate-certainty evidence suggests …