Adjustable Safety Bed Frame to Eliminate Mattress Entrapment Gaps
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing safety beds fail to prevent patients with physical and developmental disabilities from falling or becoming entrapped, as they often have gaps between the mattress and the bed frame, and do not adequately address the issue of patients climbing out of the bed.
Innovation Solution
A safety bed with a rigid construction and adjustable mattress support frame that allows for electronic elevation and lowering without moving the bed frame, combined with full-length safety rails and transparent guard members to minimize gaps and provide secure access for caregivers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If traditional guard member assemblies with spaced vertical bars are used, then the structure allows for patient ingress and egress, but gaps are created between the guard members and mattress that can cause entrapment and falling injuries
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies this principle by using a continuous flexible barrier (guard member) that can conform to the mattress surface and eliminate gaps. The guard member acts as a flexible barrier that maintains contact with the mattress while allowing patient access when lowered.
Solution Approach 2:
The guard member is designed to be dynamically adjustable between different positions (raised for safety, lowered for access). This dynamic capability allows the system to adapt between the two conflicting requirements of preventing entrapment and enabling patient ingress/egress.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If the guard member is raised to prevent falls, then patient safety is improved, but caregiver access to the patient becomes difficult requiring folding down the guard member
Solution Approach 1:
The guard member's dynamic positioning capability allows it to be raised for fall prevention and lowered for caregiver access. This resolves the contradiction by enabling the system to switch between safety mode and access mode as needed.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If high end and side panels are used to prevent patients from climbing out, then fall prevention is improved, but the patient is placed in a fixed location out of reach of health practitioners
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustable guard member provides dynamic control over patient containment. When raised, it prevents climbing out; when lowered, it allows practitioner access. This resolves the contradiction between containment and accessibility.
4Ease of operation
If the mattress is lowered to improve caregiver access, then ease of operation is improved, but gaps may form between the mattress and bed frame creating entrapment risks
Solution Approach 1:
The continuous guard member barrier maintains gap-free coverage even when the mattress position changes, preventing entrapment risks while allowing the mattress to be lowered for caregiver access.
Data Source
AI summary
A safety bed including a bed frame with a head board, side boards and a footboard, pivotally attached guard members, and a vertically adjustable mattress support structure which is attached to the side boards. The mattress support structure is capable of being lowered within the confines of the bed frame to prevent a patient from crawling out of the safety bed. The mattress support structure capable of being raised within the bed frame to grant a health care provider access to the patient. The raising and lowering of the mattress support frame does not affect height of the side boards or guard members.