Bed Plant For Hospitals

Abstract

A bed-plant for patients in a hospital including rails fastened horizontally to walls of the hospital selected for the installation of bedsteads which each have bracket elements detachably supported by said rails with a plurality of said bedsteads so connected to the rails on a given one of said walls. A plurality of carriages with lifting means for transporting and lifting or lowering said bedsteads as desired and further carriages for transporting empty and upwardly tilted ones of said bedsteads.

Description

The present invention relates to a bed-plant for hospitals.

In every hospital patients' beds and their handling are of great importance. It is a necessary requirement that the beds shall be easy to transport, empty as well as with the patient, and in other respects be easy to handle. Moreover, they shall take up as little space as possible, especially when stored or when being transported empty, and they shall permit a rational tidying up work in the sick-room. A work, which, especially in big modern hospitals, has turned out to be of essential importance, is furthermore the disinfection of the beds. The increased attention one now pays to the so-called hospital infections and the increased risk therefore during hospitalization, has made disinfection of the beds necessary on an increased scale. Said operation takes place in a separate department at each change of patient, the bed equipment moreover as a matter of course at the same time being disinfected in a special department for such purpose. Because of the fact that the beds, in order to fulfil the first mentioned requirements, nowadays are of a complicated design and as a consequence bulky, each bed among other things being provided with its own wheel base with lifting device, a considerable space is required in such a disinfection department, its building an installation therefore signifying a substantial investment. It may be mentioned that a turnover of 300 beds during 24 hours by no means is anything unusual, and as each bed requires a space of approximately 2 m.sup.2, and the time of a desinfecting operation cannot be shortened below a certain limit, unless a deterioration of the result takes place, one can understand that a disinfection department with its installations will require considerable space and a heavy investment. The comparatively complicated design of each bed also in itself means that a substantial capital is required for their acquisition at the same time as they turn out bulky and space requiring.

It is an object of the present invention to eliminate the drawbacks mentioned by providing a bed-plant in a hospital, in which each bed is of simple design, of light weight, and will occupy very little space, so that in addition to low cost and simple storage a high degree of rationalization of the disinfection work is made possible.

The object of the invention is obtained by designing the beds with:

A NUMBER OF SUSPENSION MEANS FASTENED TO CERTAIN WALLS OF THE HOSPITAL ROOMS,

A NUMBER OF BRACKET ELEMENTS TO BE DISMOUNTABLY SUPPORTED BY THE SUSPENSION MEANS, SAID BRACKETS BEING PROVIDED WITH SUPPORTING ARMS,

A NUMBER OF BED ELEMENTS, EACH ONE SUBSTANTIALLY COMPRISING A BEDPLANE WITH BEDSTEAD ENDS, AND BEING ARRANGED TO BE SUPPORTED BY THE SUPPORTING ARMS OF THE BRACKET ELEMENTS, AND

A NUMBER OF CARRIAGES PROVIDED WITH LIFTING MEANS, ARRANGED FOR THE TRANSPORTATION OF THE BED ELEMENTS AND FOR LIFTING UP THE SAME FROM, RESPECTIVELY LOWERING THEM ONTO, THE BRACKET ELEMENTS.

In the accompanying drawings

FIG. 1 is a partly sectional side elevational view of a bed assembly in a sick-room, a bed just being installed with dashed and dotted lines indicating its final installed position,

FIG. 2 is a top view of a bracket for the support of the bed,

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a carriage for the transportation of empty bed elements, and

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the carriage illustrated in FIG. 3.

An embodiment of the invention will now be described with reference to the above mentioned figures.

As is evident from FIG. 1 each bed assembly ready for use comprises a bracket 1, according to FIG. 2 each comprising two supporting arms 2, a cross beam 3, suspension mountings 4 and a strutting element 5. The suspension mountings 4 each one comprises a vertical bar 6 extending from one of the two corners connected by means of the cross beam 3, suspension hooks 7 located at the tops of said bars and at their lower ends supporting knobs 8, which can be screwed in differential positions. The strutting element 5 (not shown in FIG. 2) comprises a crosswise extending ledge and two struts 9 extending from said ledge diagonally upwards in direction towards the centre portions of the supporting arms 2. In order to provide a sidewise stay for the supporting arms 2 there are further struts 10 (FIG. 2).

For the suspension of the bracket elements 1 at walls of the sick-rooms and other places where patients' beds should be placed horizontal rails are attached to the walls, i.e., one upper rail 11, its downwards facing U-shaped section having one flange bent to form a supporting flange (12), and a lower rail 13 of substantially T-shaped section, its web pointing away from the wall, and a second rail 14 located close to the floor, said rail being provided with a channel to receive the cross strut of the strutting element 5. Said rails 11, 13 and 14 can be fastened to walls of conventional design either directly or by mounting means adapted to the design of the wall. However, in new buildings it is most suitable if the rails are incorporated into the walls forming an integral part with the wall construction, the supporting portion of which according to FIGS. 1 and 2 then for example comprising U-shaped sections 15 rigidly mounted between the ceiling and the floor, which sections as is hinted in the figures in a suitable manner can be enclosed and provided with an insulation. The rails, which thus preferably extend along the whole length of that walls, which are selected to provide the support, in addition to serving the purpose of suspending bedstead brackets are suitably also used for the suspension of bedside tables, lighting, lifting frames, and other necessary equipment, the sick-room thereby exhibiting an almost free floor space, which makes possible an ectremely rational and scrupulous tidying up work.

The bed element 16, which shall rest upon the bracket element 1, is not provided with legs and comprises a bed plane 17 and two bedstead ends 18, which can be folded against the bed plane. According to need the bed elements 16 can be equipped with different kinds of means serving the purpose to raise the head or foot end, suspension means for apparatus etc. as is the case with bedsteads of conventional hospital type.

According to the invention the transportation of beds, made up for example for the purpose of moving patients, is carried out by means of special lifting carriages 19 as per FIG. 1. Each carriage comprises a chassis 21 provided with wheels 20 and a top part 22 to support the element 16.

The chassis 21 and the top part 22 are connected by means of hydraulic jacks 23, which by a handle 24, suitably also functioning as a pulling handle for the carriage, can be brought to raise and lower the upper part 22. In this manner a bed element 16 can be transported to a predetermined bracket element 1 and be brought into position above the same, the carriage 19 thereby being introduced between the supporting arms 2, whereafter the bed element by operating the hydraulic jacks 23 can be lowered down to the position indicated with dashed and dotted lines in FIG. 1. Thereafter the carriage can be removed and be used for other transportation tasks.

At the removal of the bed elements 16 said elements by means of a carriage 19 are raised and moved from the bracket element to another desired location. When the bed is no longer required for a certain patient, it is transported to a department, where the bedding is removed and from where it shall be delivered for disinfection. The now empty bed elements 16 are suitably removed from the carriage 19 and their transportation to the special department for disinfection is carried out by means of a carriage 25 of the kind illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. After the bedstead ends and possibly other collapsible means have been folded down against the bed plane 17, the bedstead elements are tilted up as is evident from the figures. Thus, the bedstead element now constitutes a substantially plane thin plate, and several such elements can conveniently be loaded on a single carriage 25 according to what is shown in FIGS. 3, 4. The carriage 25 for this purpose is provided with a bottom plate 26 with four grooves 27 and a supporting frame 28, from the upper portion of which a number of hinged hooks 29 are extending. From FIG. 4 it is clearly evident how the bedstead elements are placed in the grooves 27 and kept in position by the hooks 29. The plate 27 is provided with four wheels, two of which suitably being of the so called caster type. In the position illustrated in the figures the bed elements can be transported to the disinfection department, and four of them thus being conveyed through the disinfection tunnel and other means, it also being possible to store them in this manner. By this arrangement the surface of the disinfection department and of the storage respectively can be reduced to one-fourth or less compared to what is required when using bedsteads of conventional design. For the bracket elements, which do not get into any close contact with the patient, it is usually sufficient with a washing off treatment with a disinfectant. However, also the bracket elements can easily be removed for a more thorough desinfection.

The function should have been evident from the above description and from the figures. Attention is however drawn to the fact that the bracket elements by means of the long rails 11, 13, 14 can be placed in any desired location along a wall provided with rails. During the mounting operation the bracket means is kept with its outer portion tilted upwards, so that the hooking means 7 can be hooked in position inside the edge of the flange 12, whereafter the bracket means is folded downwards until the supporting buttons 8 and the strutting element 5 abut against the rails 13 and 14 respectively. The supporting buttons 8 and possibly also the strutting element 5 are suitably made with means of adjustment, so that distortion of the bracket element is avoided by compensation of any roughness of the floor. The manner in which the bedstead elements are mounted and removed from its respective bracket element has already been mentioned in connection with the description of the carriage 19.

According to need the different parts of the assembly can be given a design varying from the different embodiments. Thus, in certain rooms the bracket elements 1 can be designed to support the bedstead assemblies along the wall. For certain arrangements the bracket means within a hospital may also be supplemented by free stands. It has already been mentioned that the bedstead assemblies themselves can have different embodiments. Also the carriages can be varied as to their design or be of more kinds than the ones illustrated, which all is comprised within the scope of the following claims.

Claims

What I claim is:

1. Bed-plant for hospitals, comprising a plurality of suspension means each comprising one upper rail having longitudinally extending grooves and one lower rail which can be fastened in horizontal position to the walls of the hospital selected for installation of bedsteads, a plurality of brackets elements dismountably supported by said suspension rails in any desired longitudinal position of the latter, said brackets being provided with supporting arms and upper hooking means provided to cooperate with edges of said longitudinally extending grooves provided on said upper rail, and lower supporting means arranged to support against said lower rail, a number of bed elements each one substantially comprising a bed-plane with bedstead ends, and being detachably supported by the supporting arms of said brackets elements, a plurality of carriages provided with lifting means, arranged for the transportation of said bed elements and for lifting up the same from, or respectively lowering them onto, said bracket elements, and a plurality, of carriages provided in said plant serving the purpose to transport separate, empty bedstead elements, and each one of said carriags having supporting means arranged to cooperate in supporting a plurality of upwards tilted ones of said bed elements.