Problems with specialty mattress?

[11-7er]

I work in a hospital that uses specialty mattresses which use air to help prevent decubs. Depending the size of the client we use different ones. Other RNs have noticed an increase in alert and oriented patients falling out of bed. They usually have no idea what happened. We have not had any serious injuries from these events so not much has been done. Management always says there is no correlation between the incident and the mattress. But I can't help but think there is. I've tried to research this issue on the net without much luck. Has anyone heard of a relationship between falls out of bed and any specialty mattress. Thanks

[CoffeeRTC, BSN, RN]

Being in LTC I see decubs, falls and special air mattresses all the time! I've never seen a correlation between our falls and mattresses. How high do the mattresses make the bed? Some overlays are huge and the siderails (we still use them if they are careplanned and used as a safety or repositioning aid) become so low that they are really ineffective. Are the overlays so big because of the air that the pt can just slide off? I can see this happen esp with them being over inflated.

I guess what I'm saying is that it can happen.

[KAW1962]

Yep, some of those air mattresses come with satiny mattress covers and the patient can just slide right off. Seen it happen.