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The Roundtable: Hospital Beds

This month, TechNation turned to techs in the trenches for expert tips on purchasing, repairing and maintaining hospital beds.

Mon Apr 01 2013By TechNation Magazine

TechNation Magazine | April Roundtable | Hospital Beds

 
 

This month, TechNation turned to techs in the trenches for expert tips on purchasing, repairing and maintaining hospital beds. Among them is David Minke, who logged four years as a field service tech at Hill-Rom and is now a BMET 1 in the Clinical Engineering department at U.C. Davis Health System. Also weighing in is Butch Wilcox, who is the Non-Clinical Equipment Supervisor at Children’s Hospital Colorado. Wilcox manages the beds shop, where all the hospital’s beds and cribs go for repair and regular maintenance. Wilcox and his lead bed technician Andy Mosher, both former auto mechanics, weigh in below.

WHAT ARE THE BIGGEST TRENDS RIGHT NOW IN THE PATIENT BEDS MARKET?

Minke: Trends in the market have been caregiver injury reduction, patient side rail entrapment elimination, patient fall risk containment, infection control and bariatric accommodation. Service trends have been on-board diagnostics and engineering designs to reduce maintenance, repair and replacement time. Most manufacturers offer warranties and a variety of levels of service contracts.

Mosher: The biggest trend that we’re seeing right now are specialty beds. More and more hospitals want to own and operate their own specialty beds whether on a lease or buy program. Beds are no longer just beds. Even a standard bed has many features on it today, which even 10 years ago they didn’t have.

A lot of beds nowadays are coming with full chair functions where the patient can actually sit up. Beds are also getting lower in height for smaller patients and pediatric patients. Now, you can buy beds that come standard with percussion and respiratory functions. A lot of bed manufacturers are also starting to go with touch screens, fiber optics, antimicrobial materials, quieter DC motors and patient monitoring.

Wilcox: A bed used to be a $2,000 or $3,000 investment. Now the standard is a $9,000 bed because of the specialty mattresses. We equip all beds with a $3,500 mattress that can handle up to a stage-4 skin ulcer. The mattresses are low air loss density foam that minimizes pressure points, with a cover made ofmaterial that doesn’t allow skin pinching. Constant airflow keeps skin dry.

We work very closely with our skin care nurse here in the hospital. All our beds, and before we buy a bed or mattress it goes through the skin committee. Andy and myself run the bed-purchasing program, in conjunction with our skincare nurse. We recently held a bed fare and picked out several models, and we had all the nurses visit us to help us pick out the surfaces that the bulk of our nurses wanted. We started this process a year ago in December and started implementing our program in August. We did it for two reasons: We were spending $412,000 a year to rent specialty mattresses, and for $300,000 and change we were able to buy respiratory mattress, skin care mattress, child restraint beds and bariatric beds. So the first full year that our mattress program will be in effect, we estimate we will save close to half a million dollars.

Our standard mattress that we buy today has a 10-year warranty, so while you may pay $3,500, for the next 10 years it will be replaced. In the bed shop, we do repairs, such as putting on a new cover anytime a cover is torn, and Andy repairs the valves and components of our respiratory mattresses. He has a background as an auto mechanic, and the parts are similar.

HOW WILL THE MARKET FOR PATIENT BEDS EVOLVE IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS? HOW WILL THAT AFFECT SERVICE OF THE EQUIPMENT?

Minke: Healthcare reform appears to indicate a reduction in insurance reimbursement. While most manufacturers offer a variety of products from med-surge to acute care models, innovative manufacturers may create additional open architecture platforms to allow a bed to treat a wider variety of patients. If manufacturing costs are reduced, service requirements may increase with a higher failure of lower quality components.

Wilcox: You’re going to see a lot of different surfaces in the future. Your standard covers are all going to be made of different moisture wicking materials for better infection control. That kind of cover will eventually be standard on the mattress. Another thing you’re going to see is facilities and clinical [departments] working more closely together. In our hospital we have a great working relationship with the clinical staff. When our clinical staff saw an increase in pressure ulcers, they said, “What can you do to help us?” So that’s what brought up the whole discussion.

In the future, you’ll see biomed getting in and working with clinical staff more closely and solving problems with equipment. Our ability to work closely with nursing is helpful and something that not all hospitals have. We’ve been able to overcome friction, identify problems and work as a team to solve them. This is a model other hospitals could work with. No matter what type of mechanical device, the cheapest way to prolong its life is to have a really good preventive maintenance plan in place, review it each year and make adjustments based on what’s working and what’s not working.

Read more in the April 2013 issue of TechNation Magazine.

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