Restraints

Question:

Typically, our very small children that have nasogastric tubes often have splints on their arms in the elbow area to prevent them from pulling the tube out.  We have not been treating these as restraints, should we?

Answer:

Take a look at the CMS state operations manual, tag A-0161. It provides a nice description of things that don’t have to be considered restraints. Unfortunately, as described, this scenario does sound like a restraint. Arguably, it is similar to the “arm-board” example that is not a restraint, but differs in that with use of an arm-board, staff will be present, whereas in your example, staff presence is intermittent.