Bed levers

[Ellen]

Hello all, what are your policies on use of bed levers in light of the recent coroner’s report and recommendations? I remember they were mentioned at the MHANZ conference as well as having caused similar incidents in the UK. Are people having them altered by having a middle bar added, and/or have changed their policies around use of them especially in profiling beds? Thank you!

[Kim Ridl]

Hi there
At the facilities where I work, we are only using bedloops that are clamped onto the bed and have a middle bar and are careful about the residents who we supply these with as well.
Thanks

[Aleebell@hotmail.com]

Hi Ellen

We have removed our current ones as they did not meet the recommendations and they are looking into new ones as our supplier can not provide the recommended ones for us. I have heard that there is a problem with the fact the we have multiple types of beds throughout the hospital. I would be interested to hear what other hospitals are doing and who their supplier is.
Thanks

[Eleanor Barrett]

In my hospice role we do not use bed levers on hospital beds – they slide along the bed base when the head end is elevated and then get stuck between slats so the bed can’t go back flat. They also become a barrier to getting out of bed. For the community patients we will have to get the current models retro fitted as per coroners suggestions (these are about $45 each and the suppliers will only do their own.)
However in hospital there are some bed levers of the Super-quip style that have a larger hoop and no cord to attach them to the bed. These are very robust but I still have reservations about bed levers on hospital beds unless they are the correct sort to match the bed… but with so many different beds there may be a problems matching bed lever to bed as per manufacturers guidelines. There is no easy answer!

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