Year: 2025 | Month: March | Volume: 12 | Issue: 3 | Pages: 460-468
DOI: https://doi.org/10.52403/ijrr.20250357
BMAT-Next (Rehabilitation Model): Bridging Nursing Safety and Physical Therapy Functionality
Charumathi Polavarapu
CHI St. Luke’s Health, 1717 US-59 Loop N, Livingston, TX 77351, USA
ABSTRACT
Falls and immobility remain major threats to hospitalized and community-dwelling older adults. In the United States, approximately 14 million adults aged 65 and older, roughly one in four, fall each year, making falls the leading cause of fatal and non-fatal injury in this population. Hospitalization further exacerbates this risk: older inpatients spend 57–83% of their stay in bed and frequently experience functional decline related to immobility.
The original Banner Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool (BMAT) provided a valuable nurse-driven framework for classifying mobility into four levels Sit, Stretch, Stand, and Step and linking each level to Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) equipment. This improved bedside decision-making and reduced injuries by standardizing lift selection and promoting early mobility. However, BMAT’s Level 4 grouped all ambulatory patients into a single category, regardless of endurance, cognitive-motor performance, or gait stability under fatigue. Research on mobility assessment has demonstrated that such broad scoring can obscure meaningful fall-risk indicators and limit predictive value.
BMAT-Next (Rehabilitation Model) was developed to address these gaps while retaining BMAT’s familiar structure. Levels 1–3 remain unchanged, while Level 4 is expanded into three sublevels: 4A (Endurance), 4B (Cognitive-Motor Reaction), and 4C (Fatigue Stability). BMAT-Next also formalizes “Safe Mode” protocols for medically complex patients and introduces explicit physical therapy (PT) consultation guidance embedded within the electronic health record (EHR). These enhancements maintain the nurse-driven workflow but add rehabilitative precision that supports predictive fall prevention and structured discharge planning.
This article presents an opinion-based, conceptual framework grounded in clinical experience, proposing an expanded BMAT model to enhance functional mobility assessment, fall-risk stratification, and patient recovery planning.
Keywords: Bedside Mobility Assessment Tool, BMAT, BMAT-Next, Safe Patient Handling, Geriatric Rehabilitation, Interdisciplinary Care
[PDF Full Text]