When choosing acuity adaptable hospital beds, it's imperative to understand the features that will best meet the needs of your hospital.

This guide will walk you through the essential characteristics to consider, helping you make an informed decision that aligns with the objectives you have set for your care environments.

Here are some of the key hospital bed features to look for:

Hospital bed size
The size of the hospital bed must accommodate the diverse patient population a hospital serves. Standard beds may not suffice for all patients, especially in terms of width and length. Facilities must consider hospital beds that offer integrated width and length extenders for tall and bariatric patients.

Hospital bed height
Look for acuity adaptable hospital beds with bed frames that offer a variable enough low-to-high height to accommodate the majority of patients as well as provide enough underbed clearance for other medical equipment.

Weight capacity 
Some hospital beds have boosted weight capacity of over 450kg, making them ideal for bariatric environments.

Patient ingress and egress
Make sure that the acuity adaptable hospital beds provide safe patient ingress and egress zones. Hospital beds should enable patients to easily get their feet and hands in the right positions to facilitate sitting and standing.

Adjustability 
New designs in hospital bed frames enable staff members to adjust the heads and feet of the bed to minimise patient shear and friction.

Easy manoeuvrability
To help improve patient transport and reduce injuries to employees, the hospital bed should be able to accommodate a power drive system or at least feature a 5th wheel. 

Standardised interface
Search for acuity adaptable hospital beds with frames that offer the same user interface across various configurations and in different care environments. This will go a long way to decreasing staff frustration and error as well as training times and costs.

Intuitive interface 
Does the hospital bed feature one-touch buttons for more precise patient repositioning? Are you able to program and monitor bed settings for patient safety and to carry out mobility plans? Does it offer clear communication between staff regarding patient protocols?

Versatile bed-exit detection 
Ask hospital bed manufacturers how many levels of detection are offered. Do they feature different types of alerts, and can the volume/tone be adjusted? Is there any way to automate the engagement of the alarms to minimise user error and employee forgetfulness?

Support for infection protocols
Carefully inspect the hospital beds. They should be smooth and with no cumbersome parts. Do they have textured surfaces, movable pieces or pockets that could complicate cleaning? Are their hard-to-disinfect areas that will bog down cleaning staff?

These are just some of the hospital bed features to look for in acuity adaptable hospital beds.

There are other aspects you may want to think about, such as patient controls to elevate the patient experience, one-hand release siderails, intelligent night lights, integrated scale and more.

To find out more about our range of hospital beds, please get in touch with our team.