Let us get a brief idea on some relevant articles on hospital furniture.

• Future designs on hospital beds
• Guidelines on hospital bed designs
• Tips to prevent fire in hospital beds

Future Designs On Hospital Beds

According to a recent article published in one international newspaper, there are various factors which can be considered to change the look of hospital beds. In-fact some manufacturers have already come with new ideas. Most of these ideas have already been undertaken while others are in process which when fully implemented will make hospital beds look smarter and more useful in future. These new beds can help in making the life of a nurse easier, are safer for both patient and caregiver and can even help patients to recover more quickly.

The Next Generation Bed
Right now, there are a lot of patient-centric and bed-centric information that are stuck at the bedside. According to a latest study, there is every likelihood that beds in the future will be smarter and capable of transmitting some of patient-centric information to other parts of the hospital as well. This can be a bed-tracking software and can let you pinpoint the exact location of any bed in the facility along with its status.

Patient Positioning and Transport
Because there are many instances where the nurses experience back injuries when transferring patients in and out of bed, there will be features that will assist this task. One such option is "Up in Chair" position in which the bed goes into a full chair position. This feature will be particularly helpful for difficult post-surgical situations, such as with a cardiac surgery or stroke patient, where it would normally take caregivers to get the patient over into a chair.

Beds can also have a feature called intermediate side rail position that allows the side rails to go halfway down to provide support for the patient and the nurse, giving the nurse access to the seat section of the bed.

Therapeutic Sleep Surfaces
The mattress or sleep surface is a key feature of all hospital beds, particularly for critical care patients. Mattresses can serve as therapy aids, providing pulmonary therapy, vibration and percussion, wound care, continuous lateral rotation therapy (CLRT) and more.

Specialty Beds
There can be specialty beds specially meant for pregnant women or beds for serious wound care patients or burn care victims.

Accessories
When it comes to accessories or other equipments that are used or applied to the patient, it is very essential that they should be convenient and easy to use. For example, instead of the nurse trying to push the bed and drag the IV rod along, there can be beds mounted with heavy duty IV poles that conveniently store at the head-end of the bed. In addition, there can be footboards so that ancillary equipment like pumps and therapy machines mount nicely to the footboard. There can also be beds with hospital's fracture frame equipment without having to replace it.

It is obvious that after a few years time, the hospital beds will no longer be just a place for patients to rest their heads before surgery or afterward in recovery but playing a more active role in helping nurses and doctors to treat their patients. There will be more sophisticated models incorporating features that can assist caregivers or nurses in getting patients out of bed, provide pulmonary therapy, sport built-in-scales, patient positioning features and many other features.

Guidelines On Hospital Bed Designs

According to a press release on Aug 31, 2004, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has published draft guidance for hospital bed manufacturers. These guidelines were made to reduce the occurrence of patient entrapment. Manufacturers can use the guidance to assess current hospital beds and which can help in the design of new beds. This guidance by FDA can be used by all health care facilities and home care providers to identify entrapment risks.

In the past 19 years, the FDA has received 575 reports of patient entrapment including 358 deaths, 111 injuries, and 106 near misses. This entrapment was more among older adults and people who are frail, confused, handicapped, or otherwise vulnerable. These incidents were reported at hospitals, nursing homes, and private homes.

The draft guidance by FDA is a step to address the ongoing problem of patient entrapment in hospital bed rails. The guidance identifies seven zones in hospital bed systems that have a potential for patient entrapment and makes specific recommendations for spaces around and between the rails, bed boards, and mattress. Since 1995, the Hospital Bed Safety Work Group, which consists of representatives from the FDA, hospital bed manufacturers, health care organizations, consumer groups, and other government agencies have worked together to investigate the problem, identify its causes, and find solutions.

The title of the draft guidance is "Draft Guidance for Industry and FDA Staff; Hospital Bed System Dimensional Guidance to Reduce Entrapment," and it is available on the FDA's web site at http://www.fda.gov/cdrh/beds

The FDA is seeking comments on the draft from industry professionals, health professionals, and patient advocates before publishing a final document.

Tips To Prevent Fire In Hospital Beds

It was reported by FDA in 1993 that it has received 95 reports of fires that involved electrically powered hospital beds. To help prevent such fires, the agency has prepared a list of safety tips for hospitals and other medical facilities.

The majority of the reports involved fires caused by such factors as:

• The overheating of the bed motor or capacitors
• Arcing at the plug and wall plate
• Missing components in the wiring of the bed
• Smoke or flames from outside etc.

The safety tips by FDA were released in December 2003 and these tips apply to both electrically powered and manual health care beds and to adjustable medical beds.

The FDA is still seeking additional information on fires involving hospital beds. Some medical facilities are asked to report problems with medical devices, including hospital beds, to the FDA. Health care providers employed by these facilities should use their established procedures for reporting hospital bed fires to the FDA. All other health care providers can submit their reports to MedWatch, the FDA's voluntary reporting program.

The safety tips are available at the following web address:
www.fda.gov/cdrh/safety/bedfires.html