How to Choose the Best Hospital Bed
So I always face this question from people who want to try out home care giving, “What is the best hospital bed for home use?” and at most times I do not have a definite answer and feel bad when I tell them, “It depends on many things”. It feels bad that I cannot give them a definite, specific answer but have to tell them that it depends on many things. So, in this post, I will explain what you should look out for when buying a hospital bed for home use.
How needy is the patient?
There are different types of hospital beds. There is the full electric bed, manual as well as the semi electric adjustable bed. All these beds are named according to the mode of adjustment. Those which you use a manual crank to adjust the head and footboard as well as the bed height are fully manual. Those that use both a manual crank as well as electricity to adjust are semi-electric. The fully electric bed uses electricity to adjust both height, head and footboard using a simple control on the bed rails.
To decide what bed operation mode you want depends on the patients need. If the patient is slightly disabled, then you can use a manual bed which they can adjust on their own. Full invalids can use the invacare full electric bed. For those who are bed ridden but occasionally rise on their own to visit the toilet, then you can use the semi-electric bed.
Cost of the bed
The full electric is the most costly owing to the fact that it has more gadgets and is fully automatic. Most of the electric beds also have backup systems where they are able to still operate even when power is out. The manual bed is the least expensive since you will have to operate it manually. [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMdQ1OjNpAc&w=560&h=315]
Caregiver availability
For the manual and semi-electric bed, the caregiver has to be at the beck and call of the patient so that they can be called upon anytime the patient needs them to adjust the height, headboard and footboard position. For the electric bed, the caregiver is not disturbed so much since the patient can adjust the bed on their own since they have the control at their disposal.