81 Dad Keeps Falling in Rehab Center - They Say Can’t Restrain or Extend Bedrails
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Anonymous
| While in a care facility my mother’s bed lowered way down to the floor so if she rolled off the bed it would be about a one foot fall - see if they can do this. |
Anonymous
DP. Honest question, what is wrong with this type of medication? Sorry for being clueless but if it helps not fall?! |
Anonymous
It's not all good or all bad. These medications can be lifesavers when there is agitation. But, they are heavy duty meds that have side effects. So you want to be sure they are needed, which means that the prescriber knows the patient. And, if they are given, you want the patient's condition to be closely monitored. What PP is talking about is that in some facilities (many actually) the doctors are part time and don't really know the patients. They rely on the hospital staff to provide the information. To add to the difficulty, many patients get very confused in new environments, creating an even greater risk for things like falls. And, that can present as agitation. I am not PP, but the concern I expressed upthread is whether the medical condition of the patient has been fully evaluated. A medication evaluation would be part of that. But, so would blood work. For example, low hemoglobin could make a person at risk of falls. And a cognitive evaluation. OP's father is in a rehab center, which tend to offer good medical care. So hopefully they are looking at everything. |
Anonymous
My former MIL’s bed was lowered to the ground basically during the last four months of her life. |
Anonymous
|
OP, all I can tell you is that my brother and sister are doctors and when the hospital wanted to discharge her to rehab, they refused. Said she would not get good care, based on their professional experience, and would be better off at home.
We have 24-7 help at home and when we told the caregivers about the rehab option those who had worked in rehabs told us, "Shoot, you put her in rehab, they'll check on her twice a day." They were not looking after their own paychecks, as we needed them at home to look after our other parent. It's expensive and hard to set up, but if you can manage it, your parent may be better off at home with a caregiver. As for the restraint issue - we are in a different state. We had a wheelchair with a seatbelt and a geri chair with a tray. I did not understand that those were restraints. I do think they increased the decline of my parent's able-ness. It's probably good the restraints are not allowed. |
Anonymous
| wait. bed rails aren't allowed? we have those for my parents. why are they bad? should we get rid of them?? |
Anonymous
IMHO if they work, they work. What’s the worst that can happen after 80 to a person who already needs bedrails |
Anonymous
They lead to choking and death if the parent rolls into them. They have not been used in Florida facilities for many, many years. |
Anonymous
Parent rolls into bedrail, can't roll back, they choke and asphyxiate and die. |
Anonymous
|
Nursing homes and rehabs are a senior citizens home.
Belts in wheelchairs, straps to tie down in bed, and bed rails are all classified as restraints as they prevent free movement of a senior in his or her home. Physical restraints cause mental distress in seniors and injuries and death. A senior will survive a 6" fall from a bed dropped to the floor rolling onto a gym pad. A senior can die rolling into bedrails and choking. |
Anonymous
If they try to climb over the rails to get out, they potentially fall farther than if the rails were not there, or get caught in the rails and break bones. |
Anonymous
The US Drug and Food Enforcement Agency has an article about this issue: Bed Rail Entrapment Statistics Today there are about 2.5 million hospital and nursing home beds in use in the United States. Between 1985 and January 1, 2009, 803 incidents of patients* caught, trapped, entangled, or strangled in beds with rails were reported to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Of these reports, 480 people died, 138 had a nonfatal injury, and 185 were not injured because staff intervened. Most patients were frail, elderly or confused." So because 480 mainly frail, elderly, and confused people died out of 2.5 MILLION hospital/nursing beds in the US over the span of FOURTEEN YEARS. That is 34 deaths a year on average. So now instead of 34 elderly and confused people who didn't have long to live anyways dying, you have thousands and thousands of nursing home employees working on their knees as they do duties such as: administering medications, turning and lifting residents, changing linens and clothing, and transferring residents to chairs and other devices. Or loved one are told (like the RN who posted) "Hire a 1:1" Then when people can't afford the thousands of dollars for a 1:1 the nursing home figures out the only way they can deal with the situation is to drug patients but of course the nurse says don't let the nursing home do that either. The whole thing is so ridiculous. More people died each year from dog attacks than bedrails but we don't ban dogs. |
Anonymous
At the young age of 80. In a condition where you need to have bedrails. |
Anonymous
Exactly this!!!! |
Anonymous
| Get a neurological-ideally an MRI. My grandmother developed something due to atrophy in her early 80s where she was constantly falling if not in a wheel chair. |