Using talking lights to assist brain-injured patients with daily inpatienttherapeutic schedule

Objectives: To test the ability of patients with brain injury to use a pati ent locator and minder (PLAM) system to assist in their adherence to therap y schedules. Participants: Fiver patients with acquired brain injury who we re inpatients on an acute rehabilitation floor of a rehabilitation hospital . Measures: The number of human prompts necessary to direct a patient to. a nd ensure arrival at, a scheduled therapy destination and the proportion of therapy sessions requiring no prompting was measured both before and after the introduction of the PLAM system. Results: With the PLAM system, the av erage number of human prompts dropped by more than 50%, and the number of s essions requiring no prompting increased from 7% to 44%. Conclusion: The PL AM system described in this article seems feasible and useful for patients with acquired brain injury in assisting them with arrival at their therapy destinations without the assistance of staff.