One-third of your residents account for more than half of all falls. The fix is simpler than you think.
March 2026
Of residents use walking aids
Of all falls involve walking aid users
Higher fall risk
Fell without using their aid
Data deep dive companion to The Anatomy of 2,000 Falls. This piece goes deeper into the walking aid and wheelchair data from that analysis.
In our analysis of over 2,000 falls across care settings in four countries, one finding stood above the rest. Walking aid users are 3.2 times more likely to fall than residents who don't use assistive devices. They make up roughly a third of the resident population but account for more than half of all recorded falls.
In 67% of cases, the resident wasn't using their walking aid at the time of the fall. And 43% of those falls happened when the aid was physically in the room but out of reach. The aid just needs to be within arm's reach. That's it.
43% of walking aid user falls happen when the aid is in the room but out of reach. The intervention takes 30 seconds: move the walker closer to the bed. The question is knowing when it's not there.
The numbers tell you what is happening. To understand why, we reviewed hundreds of pseudonymized fall clips. The same patterns come up again and again.
The most common pattern. A resident wakes needing the bathroom. Their walking aid is a meter away, not far, but far enough that getting to it means standing up first.
The resident tries to do the right thing. The aid is a meter from the bed. They lean out, overbalance, and fall before getting their hands on it.
A staff member parks the walker by the door. A cleaner moves it. A visitor shifts it. The resident goes to sleep with the walker nearby and wakes up with it out of reach.
See how Teton detects walking aid placement in real time.
Book a demoWheelchair users face extreme compounding risk. The base risk of getting out of bed (2.5x) multiplied by the wheelchair user factor (2.1x) produces 5.3x total risk when a wheelchair user attempts to leave bed alone.
A resident attempts to move from the bed edge into their wheelchair without assistance. The wheelchair isn't locked in place, and the unsupported transfer becomes a dangerous movement — exactly the kind of high-risk moment that compounds the 5.3x fall risk.
Facilities using Teton's walking aid and wheelchair alarms saw a 42% overall fall rate reduction. Wheelchair users: down 66%. Walking aid users: down 31%. These aren't projections — they're measured outcomes from live care settings.
Read the full research
The complete analysis of 2,000 falls across four countries.