Choosing a Home Hospital bed

Choosing a Home Hospital bed

Home hospital beds serve a very important purpose. They provide families with the ability to care for their loved-ones at home instead of placing them in an extended-care facility. In addition to providing family members with a very loving level of care, families are still able to provide family members with quality care when affordability becomes an issue.

Home Hospital Beds …. Selecting the Right Bed

Although families can sometimes select the type of bed they feel will best serve their loved-one’s needs, in some cases their options become limited to the type of bed prescribed by the patient’s physician. When the bed is to be used on a short-term basis, by a patient who is recovering from major surgery, families can choose a manual, semi-electric, or fully electric model. As long as the bed provides the ability to raise and lower the head and feet it should fit the patient’s needs just fine.

How to determine what kind of hospital bed you will need

In the case of dementia patients families should consider a fully electric model that can be lowered very close to the floor, equipped with side-rails. Patients who will need long-term care, such as individuals with burn and spinal cord injuries, will be prescribed a specific type of bed by their physicians.

Selecting the Right Mattress for your  Hospital Bed at Home

Selecting the right mattress for the home hospital bed is very important. Depending upon the patient’s needs, families can choose from:

Standard Mattresses

Air Mattresses

Therapeutic Mattresses

The most commonly used standard mattress is the standard model, available with foam or inner spring construction. Air and therapeutic mattresses are similar in purpose; they are designed to reduce the amount of pressure placed on the patient’s body. They can use either air of foam to accomplish this goal, some models use microprocessors to control their constant deflating and inflating.

Selecting the Right Accessories for your Home Hospital Bed

There are a number of accessories available for home hospital beds. The trapeze, for example, is designed to either assist the patient in shifting their position in bed or move from the bed to a chair. One style of trapeze is mounted directly onto the bed’s frame. It enables the patient to re-position themselves while lying in bed, as well as assist them in moving them to and from the bed.

A trapeze

A free-standing trapeze can be moved throughout the room, they assist the patient in movement once he/she is sitting in a chair. Unless the patient is ambulatory, able to join the family for meals, an “over bed” table will be needed. This accessory is available in several different models, some offering several angle positions to make it easier for the patient to eat or perform other activities.

Bedside cabinets come in a number of styles, the most common containing three-drawers. These units are used to store the patient’s personal items as well as items which are used throughout the day for patient care.

Piedmont Medical can make your life easier

The accessories you choose, like the bed and mattress, should meet the needs of the patient and caregiver. Any extra that would be able to fulfill a particular medical need, or make it easier to care for the patient, should be considered.

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