Patent ID: 7682308

Claim:
A system for determining a fall risk of a patient for use by a caregiver, the system comprising: a first computer readable storage medium for recording fall risk data of a patient, the fall risk data including the fall risk factors exhibited of confusion, depression, altered elimination, dizziness, male gender, antiepileptic/anticonvulsant prescriptions and benzodiazepine prescriptions; a second computer readable storage medium for recording mobility data of the patient, the mobility data including information about the patient's ability to rise from a seated position; an input device for enabling a caregiver to enter the fall risk data and the mobility data into the first and second computer readable storage media, wherein the caregiver enters a weighted point value from a predefined point value range for each of the intrinsic fall risk factors exhibited by the patient and a weighted point value from a predefined point value range based upon the patient's ability to rise from a seated position; wherein the point values for confusion and the ability to rise from a seated position are the highest weighted point values; the point values for altered elimination, dizziness, male gender and benzodiazepine prescriptions are the lowest weighted point values; and the remaining intrinsic fall risk factors are each assigned a weighted point value between the highest and lowest weighted point values; a processor for summing the weighted point values for the intrinsic fall risk factors and the weighted point value based on the patient's ability to rise from a seated position to achieve a total fall risk score and for determining the patient's fall risk based upon the total fall risk score; and a display for communicating the total fall risk score of the patient to the caregiver.