Hospital bed
Encyclopedia
A hospital bed is a bed specially designed for hospitalized patient
Patient
A patient is any recipient of healthcare services. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, advanced practice registered nurse, veterinarian, or other health care provider....

s or others in need of some form of health care. These beds have special features both for the comfort and well-being of the patient and for the convenience of health care workers. Common features include adjustable height for the entire bed, the head, and the feet, adjustable side rails, and electronic buttons to operate both the bed and other nearby electronic devices.

Hospital beds and other similar types of beds are used not only in hospitals, but in other health care facilities and settings, such as nursing home
Nursing home
A nursing home, convalescent home, skilled nursing unit , care home, rest home, or old people's home provides a type of care of residents: it is a place of residence for people who require constant nursing care and have significant deficiencies with activities of daily living...

s, assisted living
Assisted living
Assisted living residences or assisted living facilities provide supervision or assistance with activities of daily living ; coordination of services by outside health care providers; and monitoring of resident activities to help to ensure their health, safety, and well-being.Assistance may...

 facilities, outpatient clinics, and in home health care.

While the term "hospital bed" can refer to the actual bed, the term "bed" is also used to describe the amount of space in a health care facility, as the capacity for the number of patients at the facility is measured in available "beds."

History of the hospital bed

Beds with adjustable side rails first appeared in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 some time between 1815 and 1825.

In 1874 the mattress company Andrew Wuest and Son, Cincinnati, Ohio, registered a patent for a type of mattress frame with a hinged head that could be elevated, a predecessor of the modern day hospital bed. .

The modern 3-segment adjustable hospital bed was invented by Willis Dew Gatch, chair of the Department of Surgery at the Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
The Indiana University School of Medicine is a leading medical school and medical research powerhouse connected to Indiana University. With several teaching campuses in the state, the School of Medicine has its predominant research and medical center at the Indiana University – Purdue University...

, in the early 20th century. This type of bed is sometimes referred to as the Gatch Bed.

The modern push-button hospital bed was invented in 1945, and it originally included a built-in toilet in hopes of eliminating the bedpan
Bedpan
A bedpan or bed pan is an object used for the toileting of a bedridden patient in a health care facility, usually made of a metal, glass, or plastic receptacle. A bed pan can be used for both urinary and fecal discharge. Many diseases can confine a patient to bed, necessitating the use of bedpans,...

.

Wheels

Wheels enable easy movement of the bed, either within parts of the facility they are located, or within the room. Sometimes, movement of the bed a few inches to a few feet may be necessary in patient care.

Wheels are lockable. For safety, wheels can be locked when transferring the patient in or out of the bed.

Elevation

Beds can be raised and lowered at the head, feet, and their entire height. While on older beds, this is done with cranks usually found at the foot of the bed, on modern beds, this feature is electronic.

Today, while a full electric bed has many features that are electronic, a semi-electric bed has two motors, one to raise the head, and the other to raise the foot.

Raising the head (known as a Fowler's position
Fowler's position
In medicine, Fowler's position is a standard patient position. It is used to relax tension of the abdominal muscles, allowing for improved breathing in immobile patients as it alleviates compression of the chest due to gravity, and to increase comfort during eating and other activities. It is also...

) can provide some benefits to the patient, the staff, or both. The Fowler's position is used for sitting the patient upright for feeding or certain other activities, or in some patients, can ease breathing
Breathing
Breathing is the process that moves air in and out of the lungs. Aerobic organisms require oxygen to release energy via respiration, in the form of the metabolism of energy-rich molecules such as glucose. Breathing is only one process that delivers oxygen to where it is needed in the body and...

, or may be beneficial to the patient for other reasons.

Raising the feet can help ease movement of the patient toward the headboard and may also be necessary for certain conditions.

Raising and lowering the height of the bed can help bring the bed to a comfortable level for the patient to get in and out of bed, or for caregivers to work with the patient.

Side rails

Beds have side rails that can be raised or lowered. These rails, which serve as protection for the patient and sometimes can make the patient feel more secure, can also include the buttons used for their operation by staff and patients to move the bed, call the nurse, or even control the television.

There are a variety of different types of side rails to serve different purposes. While some are simply to prevent patient falls out of the bed, which can result in injury, others contain equipment that can aid the patient him/herself without physically confining the patient to bed .

Side rails, if not built properly, can be of risk for patient entrapment. In the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, more than 300 deaths were reported as a result of this between 1985 and 2004. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration
Food and Drug Administration
The Food and Drug Administration is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, one of the United States federal executive departments...

 has set guidelines regarding the safety of side rails.

In some cases, use of the rails may require a physician's order (depending on the laws of the place and the policies of the facility where they are used) as rails may be considered a form of medical restraint.

Cost

Hospital beds, being so complex, can also be costly, thereby increasing the cost of health care. A single bed can cost over $100,000 USD.

Effect on health of patients

Hospital beds can make a patient's spine more rounded because a patient who sits up a lot, such as when watching television, tends to slip down.

Safety

Patient safety has been a concern with hospital beds.

In 1982, a 3-year-old Milwaukee girl hospitalized for pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

was killed when crushed by a mechanical hospital bed.

In 1983, an 11-year-old Illinois boy was strangled to death by a hospital bed
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