What Should I know about bedrails?
Bedrails may provide support for someone in a hospital bed or stretcher. (A stretcher is sometimes called a gurney.) Bedrails can give patients something to hold onto when sitting up or moving around in bed.
At times, like after surgery, they can prevent patients from falling out of bed. However, bedrails may pose significant risk of injury to some patients. They may also be considered a restraint if a patient cannot lower them to exit the bed on their own. This is often why healthcare providers only raise some of the bedrails or none at all.
What are the risks when using bedrails?
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Entrapment” is when a patient gets caught in the bedrail, mattress, or bedframe. Entrapment can cause serious harm, like broken bones and death (often by suffocation). Some patients may try to exit the bed by crawling over the bedrails. This often happens when patients are confused or disoriented. This also leads to a high risk of serious injury and/or death.
These risks should be weighed against the benefits of using bedrails. Talk to the healthcare team if you have concerns.
