If you have an elderly relative who lives in a nursing home, you expect the facility to be a reasonably safe place for him or her. While safety has many components, you do not want your loved one to suffer a serious injury because of defective or dangerous equipment.
When considering the safety of the equipment your relative uses, you may find a critical problem with his or her bed. That is, according to reporting from NPR, the rails on either side of your loved one’s bed may pose a critical risk to his or her physical health.
An unsafe safety feature
The Consumer Product Safety Commission has warned nursing home directors about the dangers of some portable bed rails. These rails seem to increase safety by reducing falls. Unfortunately, though, certain portable bed rails can entrap nursing home residents. Entrapment, of course, may lead to broken bones, soft-tissue injuries or even suffocation.
To be sure your loved one is as safe as possible, you may want to check his or her bed for dangerous rails. The CPSC says bed rails from two manufacturers, Mobility Transfer Systems, Inc. and Metal Tubing USA, Inc., present the most risk.
Your loved one’s safety
There may be as many as 285,000 unsafe bed rails in use today. Some of these undoubtedly are on nursing home beds. Consequently, to keep your relative safe, it is advisable to inspect his or her bed rails to see if they fall within the CPSC’s warning.
Ultimately, replacing dangerous bed rails with safer ones may be one of the more effective ways to keep your loved one safe in the nursing home.