5 February 2018
Health Sector Workers Network
E-mail:
[FYI request #7090 email]
Dear Health Sector Workers Network
Official Information Act (1982) Request 1982
I write in response to your Official Information Act request, dated 8 January 2018. You requested the
following information:
•
Can you please provide all policy documents relating to restraint practices at Counties Manukau
DHB?
Yes, please see the attached documents – collated as a single PDF file.
o Restraint Minimisation and Safe Practice Policy 2017
o Restraint Minimisation and Safe Practice for Restraint and Enabler Use (2017)
o Safe and Appropriate Use of Bedrails Guideline 2017
•
Are there instances in the last year (June 2016 to June 2017) of the use of mechanical restraints
(i.e. strapping arms to bed)? This is also referred to as physical restraint.
Yes
•
Can you please provide this data for both physical and mental health services, and identify the
service (e.g. older adult physical health, emergency department, and mental health adult/ older
persons) associated with this data?
•
This data should be recorded in a Restraint Register, and specify the type of restraint used (i.e.
wrist strap), and the start and finish times of each individual mechanical/ physical restraint.
Obviously the presentation of this data should be anonymised for the protection of privacy.
Please refer to
Table 1 on next page – currently, only our Critical Care Complex uses mechanical restraint
(wrist-straps) devices. We confirm that each use of a wrist strap is recorded in the Critical Care Restraint
Register, and these notes specify the type of restraint used (i.e. wrist strap), and the start and finish
times of each individual restraint.
Counties Manukau District Health Board
19 Lambie Drive, Manukau, Auckland 2104 | Private Bag 94052, Manukau, Auckland 2241
T: 09 276 0000 | cmdhb.org.nz
Count of File July 2016-June 2017
Wrist
Service
restraints
Physical health
Critical Care Complex
44
Grand Total
44
Table 1.
The Critical Care Complex (CCC) uses a service specific paper-based and handwritten restraint register
to document all situations assessed as requiring restraints. All other clinical areas now record any use of
restraints in the Incident Reporting System (IRS) electronic database system, which provides a register
for the organisation. The “Restraint Minimisation and Safe Practice Policy” records and permits the CCC
use of a paper-based register. This type of register is currently used due to limitations of the electronic
system design, which is not ideal for recording the required level of details related to use of mechanical
devices, such as wrist restraints.
We also expect staff to fully record the rationale and circumstance related to use of restraints in each
individual patient medical file, and we continue to work with all staff to remind them of the
requirements related to documenting use of any restraints.
I trust this satisfactorily answers your request.
Yours sincerely,
Gloria Johnson
Chief Executive (Acting)
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