Hospital restraint hangs patient

Staff Writer

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The recent report of a hospital patient who died after being found suspended with a restraining vest slung around his neck should remind hospitals and their employees of the care that must be used in the decision to put a patient in a restraining device and the supervision that must be provided to that patient while restrained. That the hospital in question has reassessed its policy and curtailed the use of physical restraints is admirable.

Some patients need to be restrained to keep them from injuring themselves but those patients need to be watched much more closely while in those restraints to prevent this very thing from happening. According to the joint commission on accreditation of health care organizations, fourteen people died last year because of problems associated with the use of a restraining device.