Accreditation

Case focuses on patient restraint

Accreditation Connection, November 16, 2007

An Illinois hospital is headed back to court for allegedly violating its own patient restraint policies and failing to check a patient for contraband, following a fire set in a patient's room.

A new trial was ordered by the Illinois Supreme Court for the case, dating back to 1998, in which an intoxicated patient was admitted to the emergency room of Columbia Olympia Fields (IL Osteopathic Hospital and Medical Center, restrained in a cart, and left alone. Subsequently, he was found on fire in his room. The patient filed an unsuccessful negligence suit. The court, however, has allowed a new trial based on the theory that the hospital is negligent for not searching the patient prior to restraint.

A case summary can be found here.

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