As healthcare equipment continues to advance, the role of the hospital bed has evolved significantly.
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What used to be considered a “piece of furniture,” the hospital bed has transformed into an integral piece of therapeutic medical equipment that can substantially affect patient experience and treatment outcomes.
The choice of a hospital bed should be guided by a deep understanding of the facility’s needs, patient demographics, and the specific challenges healthcare providers face on a daily basis. Let’s explore them in more detail.
As healthcare facilities strive for improved patient outcomes and operational efficiency, the selection of hospital beds can significantly impact various critical areas.
A properly chosen hospital bed can drastically reduce staff injuries. By integrating features such as adjustable height settings and enhanced mobility, contemporary hospital beds help prevent physical strain on healthcare workers, thereby reducing the occurrence of workplace injuries.
Furthermore, hospital-acquired pressure injuries (HAPIs) and infections (HAIs) can also be mitigated through the use of advanced bed surfaces designed for better patient management and ease of cleaning. Specialized support surfaces for hospital beds allow staff to more easily follow infection control protocols and reduce the likelihood of pressure injuries, both which directly affect a healthcare facility's adherence to its HAPI and HAI prevention goals.
Patient safety and satisfaction are directly influenced by the quality and functionality of hospital beds. Medical beds equipped with customizable positions and patient-friendly controls enhance the patient experience, increasing satisfaction by providing comfort and autonomy over bed adjustments.
Moreover, Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) programs and early mobility initiatives benefit from hospital beds that provide a range of mobility levels. These features facilitate early patient movement, which can prevent complications related to prolonged hospitalization.
Finally, the economic impact of choosing the right hospital bed cannot be overlooked. Investing in high-quality, versatile hospital beds reduces the need for and cost associated with rental equipment. This also contributes to staffing retention, satisfaction, and engagement by demonstrating a commitment to providing the best tools and environment for patient care.
Educating staff on how to use standardized beds efficiently reduces time spent on training and maximizes the effectiveness of hospital resources. By ensuring that hospital beds can meet these varied needs, healthcare facilities create a safer, more efficient, and patient-centric environment.
The emergence of a new generation of medical beds, known as acuity adaptable hospital beds, is marking a significant advancement in healthcare delivery, the efficiency and safety of clinical staff, and hospital performance.
Acuity adaptable hospital beds are a flexible solution that caters to diverse patient needs while providing a certain level of standardization. For example, acuity adaptable hospital beds can be used in various care environments, such as Med-Surg, high-acuity care, long-term acute care, behavioural health environments, and palliative care units.
These beds offer various features that allow you to care for a variety of patients in a variety of settings while helping staff achieve a multitude of goals.
And with the right acuity adaptable hospital bed partner, healthcare teams can use the medical bed’s features appropriately, molding them into current facility policies and procedures—rather than the other way around—and enabling customization of equipment based on your unique needs.
When selecting hospital beds, healthcare facilities must prioritize a complex array of requirements to ensure they are making the best choice for their specific needs. It takes a multi-pronged approach that involves all stakeholder, including nursing managers and other clinical staff, biomedical technicians, procurement, and upper management.
Start by understanding your facility’s current performance and associated costs of fall rates, HAIs, HAPIs, and Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS). What’s working and what’s not?
Ask nursing staff about issues with your current medical beds. Are they too high or too low? Are they incompatible with other hospital equipment, such as lifts and overbed tables? Do patients complain about the hospital beds? What is the level of staff injuries that are caused by working with the beds and patient handling? Engaging with healthcare staff will enable you to tap into a wealth of information that will drive your search for the best acuity adaptable hospital bed for the team.
Other points to evaluate is the current service levels, contract compliance and sheer number of medical bed suppliers your facility currently works with. Are your hospital beds currently difficult to repair? Are lead times on service parts becoming unacceptable? How easy is it to get support from the manufacturers when troubleshooting the use and maintenance of your fleets of hospital beds? Evaluating the costs and complexity of juggling different hospital bed vendors should also be considered—from operational, logistics, and staff productivity standpoints.
Once you’ve painted a complete picture of your facility’s needs and what prioritized challenges need to be addressed, you will have built the foundation for appraising different brands of acuity adaptable hospital beds.
When choosing acuity adaptable hospital beds, it's imperative to understand the features that will best meet the needs of your healthcare facility.
This guide will walk you through the essential characteristics to consider, helping you make an informed decision that aligns with the objectives you have set for your care environments.
Here are some of the key hospital bed features to look for:
These are just some of the hospital bed features to look for in acuity adaptable hospital beds.
There are other aspects you may want to think about, such as patient controls to elevate the patient experience, one-hand release siderails, intelligent night lights, integrated scale and more.
If your healthcare facility is aiming to update its medical bed fleet, it is also important to think about hospital bed support surfaces.
Factoring in support surfaces at the same time as purchasing medical beds beds, especially from the same manufacturer, offers several interconnected benefits that enhance both the efficiency of the procurement process and the quality of patient care.
When beds and support surfaces are designed to function together as a system, compatibility is ensured, which optimizes both functionality and performance. This seamless integration avoids the complications that can arise from mismatched equipment that may not fit well together, potentially compromising patient safety and comfort as well as slowing down team efficiency.
Procuring these items from a single source also simplifies logistics, reducing the complexity and coordination required when dealing with multiple suppliers. This streamlining can lead to quicker deployment of new equipment in patient rooms, allowing for faster readiness for patient care.
Purchasing from the same manufacturer ensures consistent quality across products, as similar standards and technological innovations are likely applied across their product lines.
Dealing with one manufacturer simplifies warranty and service agreements, providing more comprehensive coverage and easier service management. In cases of equipment failure or the need for repairs, having a single point of contact can accelerate service responses.
You can discover more tips on choosing a support surface for patients here.
Forward-looking manufacturers are developing game-changing acuity adaptable hospital beds with platforms for remote display and consultation of bed information to optimize the work of clinical and administrative staff. In fact, they connect the patient bed to the nurses’ station and maintenance department, simplifying team collaboration and saving time.
The benefits of these platforms are indeed compelling. Staff members can:
One such platform is Umano Connect, which can be used on all of Umano Medical’s acuity adaptable hospital beds.
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Remember that when you purchase hospital beds, an essential aspect is the level of service the manufacturer provides. Some legacy medical equipment vendors tend to focus on providing equipment supply. But there’s so much more to adding a new fleet of hospital beds to your facility.
Work with a manufacturer that offers a proven track record of white-glove service. Look for 24/7/365 live technical support, same-day part shipping, on-site assistance during delivery and installation, specialists available on-site within 72 hours, and all-inclusive parts coverage from damage resulting from unintentional negligence and misuse as part of your hospital bed procurement.
A warranty of 10 years on hospital beds, which guarantees that the medical beds are in patient-ready conditions for a decade gives added peace of mind that a healthcare facility’s investment will last. Keep that in mind.
Ask your hospital bed manufacturer about its medical bed service plans and if they have add-ons, like:
A strong collaborative relationship with a medical bed manufacturer allows for input into future product development and customization as a facility or care unit’s needs evolve.
This type of partnership allows healthcare providers to influence the design and features of the beds to better meet specific clinical requirements and ensures that the beds can adapt to changes in healthcare practices and patient demographics over time.
By working closely with a manufacturer that is open to co-development, listens to facilities’ feedback, and understands at on-the-ground experiences drive innovation, you can be a part of creating more efficient, patient- and employee-centered hospital beds. If your hospital bed manufacturer fosters long-term joint ventures with innovation centers and trusted healthcare institutions, you know that it is committed to clinical performance.
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In sum, selecting the right hospital bed for your healthcare facility is a multifaceted decision. From ensuring the bed's adaptability to specific patient needs to considering the long-term operational and financial benefits, every aspect must be carefully examined.
By thoroughly understanding your facility's specific requirements and the available hospital bed options, you can make an informed choice that will benefit both patients and healthcare providers for years to come.
You or a loved one need a home hospital bed, and you’ve browsed the web to see what’s available. But the range of options has left you confused. Should you buy a home hospital bed or an adjustable bed? Which adjustments do you require? How big are home hospital beds, and will one fit in your bedroom?
You want to choose the best home hospital bed, but how do you buy a bed that meets the patient’s needs? In this article, we cut through the jargon and answer some of the biggest questions asked by people who are new to the world of home hospital beds.
Before buying a home hospital bed, it’s essential to think about the bed user’s needs. It’s easier to identify the best hospital bed with a list of requirements in hand. If you’re researching beds for an elderly or disabled relative, the first step is to talk to them—they know their needs better than anyone. Ask about their experiences with their current bed and the features of a hospital bed that would improve their quality of life and safety.
If your bed’s intended user can’t explain their needs, consider talking to a medical or caregiving professional. Their experience of hospital beds in the home environment means they understand the best options for dealing with various conditions.
When putting a list of requirements together, keep the following questions in mind:
Once you have a clear idea of the bed user’s needs, you can begin to identify home hospital beds that best meet them. But first, let’s answer the most common questions hospital bed buyers ask.
As you research, you will find beds described as hospital beds or adjustable beds. They seem to have many of the same features, so how are they different? In fact, these terms are often used interchangeably, and there’s no well-defined list of differences.
Whether a bed retailer or manufacturer calls their products “home hospital beds” or “adjustable beds” is simply a preference. Some say beds with only head and foot adjustments are adjustable beds, while hospital beds must also have a height adjustment. Others say hospital beds are single occupancy, and any larger bed—queen-size, or king-size—is an adjustable bed.
These distinctions are arbitrary. Whichever bed you are looking at, ensure it has the features you need and that the manufacturer has a reputation for making robust, high-quality products—regardless of whether they describe them as home hospital beds, adjustable beds, or medical beds.
Home hospital beds are adjustable. The bed frame is articulated so that it can be moved into multiple positions. All adjustable beds feature a head adjustment; the upper portion pivots upward to support the occupant lying down, sitting up, and points in between. More sophisticated beds have additional adjustments that may include:
A hospital bed may include only the head adjustment or a head adjustment in combination with others. The most sophisticated beds—including the Transfer Master Supernal 5— have a complete range of adjustments. These are five-function home hospital beds, and we went into greater depth about them in What Is a 5 Function Hospital Bed?
Features to look out for when considering adjustments are:
Home hospital bed adjustments can be manual or motorized. The head, foot, and height adjustments must be moved by hand in a manual-powered home hospital bed. For height adjustments, that’s usually achieved by a hand crank. In contrast, electric home hospital beds are fitted with motors. The adjustments are changed via remote control, which might be wired or wireless, depending on the bed.
We recommend buying an electric adjustable bed. Electric beds have multiple advantages compared to less sophisticated low-end manual beds.
Although they are more expensive than manual beds, electric adjustable beds offer the user a better quality of life, especially if they are bedridden or would struggle to operate a manual bed.
Although it may be possible to use your current mattress on a home hospital bed, it can negatively impact the bed’s usefulness, comfort, and safety. Hospital beds change shape, and standard consumer mattresses are not flexible enough to accommodate a full range of movement.
We advise our customers to use mattresses designed to work with home hospital beds. Our Supernal mattress range is designed to conform to the shape of the bed through a full range of adjustments while offering outstanding comfort for patients who spend long periods in bed.
Adjustable hospital beds are available in sizes to suit most home environments and users. A full-size hospital bed, also known as a double, is approximately 54 inches wide and is suitable for most adults. If you have limited space or need a hospital bed for a child or small adult, consider a twin-size hospital bed, which is approximately 38 inches wide.
For couples or larger individuals, we offer queen-size hospital beds, which are 60 inches wide, and king-size hospital beds, which are 76 inches wide. For couples who prefer to sleep together but would like to control each side of the bed independently, we offer dual king adjustable beds, which comprise a pair of twin-size beds in one unit.
Most hospital beds are 80 inches long, about 6 feet 8 inches. For taller people, we also offer extra-long hospital beds in some models, which are 84 inches or 7 feet long.
When buying a home hospital bed, you should ensure that the bed’s weight capacity is sufficient to support the weight of the individual or couple who will use it. High-quality hospital beds can take a lot of weight, but overloading them may damage the motors and mechanisms that power the adjustments.
Each model has a weight capacity specification. Our Supernal 5 has a maximum weight capacity of 300 lbs, while the Supernal Hi-Low supports up to 400 lbs in the twin size and up to 500 lbs in full and queen sizes. For heavier individuals and couples, there are specialist bariatric adjustable beds that support a maximum weight of 700 lbs.
Want more information on electric hospital beds for sale? Feel free to contact us.