Hospital bed rails risk death, injury to patients

GHN News Editor - Nursing home residents are at risk from bed rails, according to legal experts, leading some to question both care and types of beds used in nursing homes that might pose risks to the elderly.

An attorney tells the story of a fellow by the name of Harry Griph Sr.who was expected to die.    At the age of 75 he had chronic diseases and functional impairments that put him in hospice to await death.


The New York Times, according to the lawyer discussing this story,  reported that a staff member found Griph dead on
Christmas morning. But Griph hadn't died  not of natural causes but because his neck had been trapped between the bed rail and mattress, creating a condition where he had suffocated.


A
lawsuit alleging negligence against the facility continues against the hospice and the bed manufacturer in this case..


A spokesperson for the facility declared the care provided had been adequate in spite of the fact the U.S. Food and drug Administration had previously warned against using those bed rails in 1995.


Steven Miles, University of Minnesota geriatrician and bioethicist, is said to have told
the New York Times that " bed rails don't improve safety for nursing home
and assisted living patients. The rails do decrease the risk of falling
by 10 to 15 percent," Miles said, "but increase the risk of injuries by 20
percent in those falls that do occur."


The human toll from hospital bed entrapment has been significant, according to the attorney providing this information, with an FDA count of more than 480 deaths and 138 injuries, with another 185 close calls.  Still Miles indicates this is a tiny fraction of the real numbers.


According to estimates,  approximately 1.4 million people in nursing
homes, assisted living facilities and rehabilitation centers,  with at least
140,000 are in beds with rails.   This does not include those at home in beds equipped with rails.