Confronting The Issue of Patient Restraints in Hospitals

MILFORD, Ohio, Sept. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- In a large number of hospitals in America, patients are restrained in one form or another. The restraints may range from railings to literally being fastened to the bed.

There are no recent statistics on the use of patient restraints, although a 2007 study in the Journal of Nursing Scholarship concluded they were being used at the rate of 50 per 1,000 patient days. That means roughly 27,000 patients were being restrained in U.S. hospitals during any given day.

The intent behind restraining patients – most of who are being treated in intensive care units (ICUs) –is an attempt to protect often semi-conscious patients from accidentally removing tubes from their body that are delivering oxygen or medication. However, its medical necessity has been debated in recent years.

Miriam Eide and Katie Ormsby, director and manager of accreditation for Piedmont Healthcare respectively, will discuss how the Atlanta-area's largest hospital system was able to virtually eliminate its use of patient restraints. The pair will present their experience at the annual DNV GL Healthcare symposium, Oct. 2-4 in Denver. DNV GL is Piedmont's accrediting body.

According to Eide and Ormsby, Piedmont regularly used patient restraints in its ICU until 2015, when it began working with DNV GL. Piedmont officials used internationally recognized ISO 9001, a quality management system introduced as a part of DNV GL's National Integrated Accreditation for Healthcare (NIAHO®) standard, to transition into restraint use only on a case-by-case basis. Between October 2017 and April of this year, the use of patient restraints at Piedmont's hospitals decreased by double-digit percentages.

"It's just a matter of changing the culture," said Eide, who noted that using restraints had become an ingrained habit at Piedmont. That's despite the fact that the ratio of nurses to patients is always highest in the ICU.

DNV GL regularly encourages the hospitals it accredits to reduce its use of patient restraints. The results can be dramatic. Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital in South Boston, Va. cut the use of patient restraints by 95 percent. The number of ICU patients who pulled out their tubes also dropped by two-thirds. The number of patient days on ventilators also dropped.

In a separate presentation, DNV GL surveyors Ronell Myburgh and Rhoene Jessup will also discuss how the use of patient restraints is one of the top reasons hospitals receive notices of non-conformance with the Conditions of Participation in the Medicare program.

DNV GL Healthcare has pioneered a roadmap for hospitals to improve the delivery of healthcare services at every level, based on its adaptation of the ISO 9001 quality management system for the healthcare sector. Using ISO 9001 in conjunction with requirements to meet the CMS Conditions of Participation allows hospitals to improve quality and enhance patient safety at the highest possible level.

DNV GL's 2018 Healthcare Symposium: The Future of Accreditation will take place at the Renaissance Denver Stapleton Hotel in Denver, CO, October 2-4, 2018. Attendees can also have the opportunity to obtain up to 20 continuing education credits.

To register for DNV GL's 2018 Healthcare Symposium: The Future of Accreditation, please click here.

As the nation's second-largest healthcare accreditation body, Gary Davis, DNV GL Business Assurance North American Regional Manager, cites its "kinder and gentler" approach and its year-round partnership strategy as some of the keys to successfully accrediting hospitals and boosting quality improvement at a rate of 20% growth year over year. The majority of hospitals choose accreditation in order to be certified by the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to receive federal funds and reimbursements from Medicare and Medicaid programs.

Hundreds of hospitals across the United States have switched to DNV GL Healthcare over the past decade. The organization accredits more than 500 hospitals in 49 states.

About DNV GL Healthcare
DNV GL Business Assurance is a world-leading certification body. We help businesses assure the performance of their organizations, products, people, facilities and supply chains through certification, verification, assessment, and training services. Within healthcare we help our customers achieve excellence by improving quality and patient safety through hospital accreditation, managing infection risk, management system certification and training.

The DNV GL Group operates in more than 100 countries. Our 12,500 professionals are dedicated to helping our customers make the world safer, smarter and greener. www.dnvglcert.com/healthcare

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SOURCE DNV GL Healthcare

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