Bed Rail Entrapment and Nursing Home Abuse

According to the Food & Drug Administration, there are about 2.5 million hospital and nursing home beds in the United States.

Between 1985 and 2008, 772 incidents of patients caught, trapped, entangled, or strangled in beds with rails were reported to the FDA. Of these reports, 460 people died, 136 had a nonfatal injury, and 176 were not injured because staff intervened. Most patients were frail, elderly or confused.

Hospital bed and side rail entrapments occur when a patient somehow becomes stuck between the mattress and the rail, a gap created by the bed when it is adjusted, or when the patient becomes disoriented and tries to leave the bed without assistance. Some entrapments are more common than others. Common types of entrapments happen in moveable beds (where the bed can be adjusted, thus creating a gap), in narrow spaces between side rails and the mattress, and in the spaces between the bars or PVC materials that make up the side rails themselves. Further entrapments also may happen if a patient becomes entangled in bedding used on the bed, and then becomes entrapped between the side rail and the bed.

Likewise, entrapments may be more likely to happen in specific parts of the bed. These parts commonly are referred to as entrapment zones. Entrapment zones commonly involve flaws in the relationship between the bed and the mattress in use on the bed. These zones may happen if the mattress is either too long or too short for the bed, or if there is a soft – rather than firm – edge to the mattress.

Entrapments can result in serious injury and death.