How Safe are Bed Rails for Seniors? Not Very.

A recent New York Times blog post posed the question — are bed rails, which are commonly found in nursing homes and assisted living facilities for seniors, actually safe?

Geriatrician and bioethicist Dr. Steven Miles at the University of Minnesota answers that question with a resounding NO. While bed rails are ideally supposed to prevent an aging adult from accidentally falling out of bed Miles explains that, “they increase the risk of injury by about 20 percent because they change the geometry of the fall.