FDA Sets Guidelines for Bed Safety

March 2006

After receiving 700 reports of injury and 400 reports of death from patients entrapped in hospital beds during the past two decades, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released safety guidelines to hopefully reduce these alarming numbers.

The recommendations give advice to makers of new hospital beds, as well as hospitals and nursing homes, on improving bed design and following existing FDA rules on safety. One recommendation is to make sure the space between the bottom of a bed rail and the bed is calculated without a mattress. This is because the mattress can compress over time and could create larger openings trapping a person. The guidelines also include ways health-care workers can test existing beds for the risk of entrapment.

The complete list of recommendations is found on the FDA website.

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