Doing away with side rails?

Its considered a restraint if all 4 rails are up according to OBRA and you need a doctors order to be able to use all 4 side rails . If you use just the 2 top rails via the head of bed its ok , I think putting the bed to absolute lowest position helps with falls because the distance is less to fall and put a foam pad on the floor by bed to break or facilitate the fall.

One of the most important aspects of using ANY restraint is the documentation. Restraints are permitted if you document everything else you've tried and the reason you need a restraint. And not everything is a restraint. We had one woman...every year the surveyors would pick her chart. She was relatively young AND retarded AND confined to a wheelchair. We had a zealot of a surveyor one year. She saw the woman sitting in her wheelchair with a tray in front of her. She went to the chart and didn't see any restraint documentation. She wanted to cite us. I said to her "the woman is non-ambulatory...couldn't get out of the chair if she wanted. It's all documented. AND she uses the tray only for bead making." Apparently the surveyor didn't believe me so off she goes to ask the resident. The resident looked at her and said "Are you blind? I can't get out of the damn chair anyway...do you want to take off the tray and see if I can walk? And where else could I do my bead work!!" We didn't get cited. It's all in the documentation...and in this case...ATTITUDE!