Bed Rails Used In Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities Have Many Known Hazards - Nursing Home Abuse Lawyer Weighs In
A recent story published in The New York Times on Friday, March 10, 2010 highlights a situation that often flies under the radar, namely the dangers of bed rails on beds used in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals. In 1995, the FDA put out a warning noting entrapment dangers posed by bed rails. Many states put out an alert regarding bed rail dangers earlier than that date.
Bed rails were designed to be safety devices analogous to seat belts in cars and meant to keep sick people who are drugged, confused, or restless from falling or climbing out of bed in hospitals or nursing homes. The Times reports that after reviewing cases of elderly people being injured or killed in bed rail accidents, the reality is different. Rails decrease the risk of falling by 10 to 15 percent but they increase the risk of injury by about 20% because they change the “geometry of the fall” according to expert geriatrician and bioethicist Steven Miles of the University of Minnesota.
Confused or demented patients who try to climb over the rails instead of falling from a lower level and landing on their knees or legs are apt to fall further and strike their heads, but the greatest danger is entrapment with patients getting stuck within the rails or between the rails and mattresses.
Last year, according to the Times story, the Food and Drug Administration tallied 480 deaths, 138 injuries, and 185 close calls involving hospital beds over a 24-year period. Dr. Miles believes that those statistics represent only a small fraction of all accidents, most of which go unreported.
