When No One's Watching: Solving Fall Risk in Senior Living with Smarter, Proactive Care

Here's a sobering reality: the majority of falls in senior living communities happen when no one is watching. A resident gets up in the middle of the night, loses their balance reaching for something, or simply misjudges a step. By the time staff responds, the fall has already occurred.

Traditional fall prevention relies heavily on periodic assessments and environmental modifications. While these are essential, they can't account for the dynamic nature of fall risk. A resident who was stable yesterday might be at elevated risk today due to a new medication, poor sleep, or the progression of an underlying condition.

Sentinel's approach supports this paradigm. By capturing gait data during routine activities, our platform builds a personalized baseline for each resident. Machine learning models then flag deviations from this baseline—often surfacing changes that qualified care teams can review before mobility decline progresses.

When the system flags elevated risk, care teams receive information they can act on. Maybe a resident needs a medication review. Perhaps their physical therapy regimen should be adjusted. Or it could be as simple as ensuring they use their walker consistently. Clinical decisions remain with the care team.

This shift toward preventive intervention workflows doesn't just support earlier action on falls—it helps preserve the independence and dignity that residents value most.