Location-Aware Fall Detection System for Dementia Care on Nursing Service in Evergreen Inn of Jianan Hospital

According to the Taiwan Alzheimer's Disease Association data released in April 2012, the domestic population of dementia increased annually. Especially, the estimated aging population increased from 248.6 million in 2010 to 784.4 million in 2060, i.e., approximately four persons in 100 have dementia. Thus the dementia care for the elderly became a problem. Recently several programs and subsidy cases were initiated to develop various telemedicine services and care information systems. Accordingly, the present study provides a safety monitoring platform for nursing care service with a wearable vest incorporating accelerometer-based fall detection and message notification service for the elderly with dementia to assist managers improve the care quality in Jianan Hospital. Especially, it aggregates the RFID real-time locating service (RTLS) with GIS (geographic information system) to enhance the precision of real-time accidental detection based on a body posture angle (BPA) measure approach by replacing the existing CCTV system for security monitoring of living area in Evergreen Inn. After the safety monitoring platform was deployed, experimental results showed it can improve the care safety for dementia patients in which the number of patient fall decreased 81% than that of the conventional CCTV monitoring system.