A guide for choosing hospital bed.
Even at home, a hospital bed can be useful and even necessary. But there are so many options – how do you know what to get?
best_hospital_bed
Choosing a hospital bed and other adaptive bedroom equipment can be a very daunting task. Just the thought of redesigning your bedroom, removing your beautiful furniture and having to replace it with all this medical equipment, is overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine replacing your dresser with a patient lift, your nightstand with a commode, your sofa with a geri chair and your bed with a hospital bed… In many situations, you may want to avoid it altogether, but you know that this is what’s best for yourself or your loved one.
But even once you accept the reality of the situation and feel ready to go ahead with the changes, the process of switching over can still be difficult and stressful, since there are so many different options to choose from. Today, let’s explore the different hospital bed types and their advantages as well as hospital bed accessories.
Manual, electric or somewhere in between?
Starting out, there are three basic options to choose from. There is a manual bed, a semi electric bed and full electric hospital bed.
Manual Hospital Beds: The positions and height of the manual bed is controlled manually, using a crank, so anytime you want to change the position of the bed there is manual labor required. However, if the patient does not require constant position changing, a manual bed might be the best option. Keep in mind that there are some manual beds that don’t have the same range of positions as an electrical bed has, so if the patient needs to be put in many different positions, an electrical hospital bed might be a better option. The manual bed is usually a lot cheaper, so if there is a caregiver that is able to do this work, the manual hospital bed is definitely the most economical way to go.
Semi Electric Hospital Beds: A semi electric bed has a motor that controls the adjustments needed for the feet and head, so with the push of a button you can easily change those positions. However the height of the bed is still manual. So if the patient needs the head and leg rests to be repositioned frequently, but not so much the height, a semi electric bed might be perfect. The semi electric beds are usually a bit more expensive than the manual beds; however, you get the added benefit of not having any manual work needed to adjust the two ends of the bed.
Full Electric Hospital Beds: An electrical bed is plugged into an outlet and is controlled with a remote that usually attaches to the side of the bed. All the different positions can be changed very easily, thus eliminating the need for any manual labor. In addition to the control over the feet and head, the height of a full electric bed can easily be changed with the push of a button. This can be important if the patient needs the bed to be lowered often to make it safer to get in and out of bed, and then raised again to allow caregivers to reach the patient easily. If this is something that will be a necessity, a full electric hospital bed would be the best option of the three basic types of hospital beds.
best_hospital_bed
Choosing a hospital bed and other adaptive bedroom equipment can be a very daunting task. Just the thought of redesigning your bedroom, removing your beautiful furniture and having to replace it with all this medical equipment, is overwhelming. It’s hard to imagine replacing your dresser with a patient lift, your nightstand with a commode, your sofa with a geri chair and your bed with a hospital bed… In many situations, you may want to avoid it altogether, but you know that this is what’s best for yourself or your loved one.
But even once you accept the reality of the situation and feel ready to go ahead with the changes, the process of switching over can still be difficult and stressful, since there are so many different options to choose from. Today, let’s explore the different hospital bed types and their advantages as well as hospital bed accessories.
Manual, electric or somewhere in between?
Starting out, there are three basic options to choose from. There is a manual bed, a semi electric bed and full electric hospital bed.
Manual Hospital Beds: The positions and height of the manual bed is controlled manually, using a crank, so anytime you want to change the position of the bed there is manual labor required. However, if the patient does not require constant position changing, a manual bed might be the best option. Keep in mind that there are some manual beds that don’t have the same range of positions as an electrical bed has, so if the patient needs to be put in many different positions, an electrical hospital bed might be a better option. The manual bed is usually a lot cheaper, so if there is a caregiver that is able to do this work, the manual hospital bed is definitely the most economical way to go.
Semi Electric Hospital Beds: A semi electric bed has a motor that controls the adjustments needed for the feet and head, so with the push of a button you can easily change those positions. However the height of the bed is still manual. So if the patient needs the head and leg rests to be repositioned frequently, but not so much the height, a semi electric bed might be perfect. The semi electric beds are usually a bit more expensive than the manual beds; however, you get the added benefit of not having any manual work needed to adjust the two ends of the bed.
Full Electric Hospital Beds: An electrical bed is plugged into an outlet and is controlled with a remote that usually attaches to the side of the bed. All the different positions can be changed very easily, thus eliminating the need for any manual labor. In addition to the control over the feet and head, the height of a full electric bed can easily be changed with the push of a button. This can be important if the patient needs the bed to be lowered often to make it safer to get in and out of bed, and then raised again to allow caregivers to reach the patient easily. If this is something that will be a necessity, a full electric hospital bed would be the best option of the three basic types of hospital beds.