Selecting Home hospital Bed Accessories: A Guide

When you spend a lot of time in your hospital bed, you should have easy access to tools and equipment to make those hours as safe, pleasant, and comfortable as possible. Often, it’s the little things that matter most. Things you wouldn’t even think about if you have never needed a home hospital bed.

In this article, we will have a look at some of the essential hospital bed accessories and explain how they help hospital bed users to be as safe and independent as possible.

Getting Into and Out of Bed

Home hospital beds and mattresses are designed to make it easy and safe to get into and out of bed. Many of our beds, including the Supernal Hi-Low, can be adjusted up and down to make it easier to get to your feet or into a wheelchair. But, if you need extra support when getting into and out of bed, there are many accessories that can help.

If you have trouble lifting yourself off the bed or lowering yourself onto the bed, you may find a lifting pole useful. Lifting poles, which are sometimes called trapeze bars, are a type of gantry that can be attached to the bed or free standing. A handle is suspended from a rope connected to the lifting pole. You can grip the handle to pull yourself up or support yourself as you move about the bed.

Transfer Master beds are compatible with a wide variety of free-standing trapeze bars, which allows customers to choose and position the bars to suit their specific requirements. 

Bed Rails

Hospital bed rails fill several roles. They help you to move around the bed more easily. But they also make sure that you can’t roll out of bed. They’re an excellent accessory for any patient with mobility limitations or bodily weakness. They are also often used to help patients with conditions such as Alzheimer’s Disease to remain on the bed.

Many of our beds include standard brackets for half rails, and we can also supply beds with 7-inch extension brackets. You can buy bed rails in many different sizes, including half and full-length rails, both of which are adjustable so that they can be moved out of the way.

Bed rails are extremely useful to have, but care should be taken to choose rails designed for safety and to use them with a suitable bed and mattress. Full-length rails can be dangerous. There is a risk that patients trap extremities, which has, in some cases, caused fatalities. The danger of full-length rails is compounded by an ill-fitting mattress, which can allow patients to potentially roll over the top of the rails or become trapped under them. 

Transfer Master beds can be fitted with half-length rails, and for patients that require more support, we recommend using a pair of half-length rails on each side of the bed.

All Transfer Master mattresses include border protection at the edges of the mattress. These more rigid areas can prevent patients from becoming trapped under bed rails, as well as helping them to retain a central position in the bed and making it easier to get onto and off the mattress.

If you choose to fit your bed with rails, you may also want to consider using side-rail pads, such as our bamboo rail covers, which envelop the rails with a layer of padding to prevent injury and create a more comfortable environment. Side-rail pads are also washable and help to keep bed rails clean.

Accessories for Controlling Your Hospital Bed

Not too long ago, adjustable hospital beds were controlled by mechanical handles. Patients often found these controls difficult to reach and manipulate. That meant patients had little control of head or foot adjustments or the height of the bed from the ground.

Today, high-quality hospital beds include motorized adjustments controlled via an electronic interface. Patients can adjust the bed with an easy-to-use remote control when they are in bed or before they get in.

Our home hospital beds from the Supernal line – which includes the Supernal Hi-Low and the Supernal 5 – have a wireless remote control that can adjust all of the bed’s features, giving the patient and carers complete control.

However, the included remote controls may not be suitable for patients with limited mobility or reduced vision. Customers who choose the Night Rider Series or New Valiant Series hospital beds can add an optional wired hand control. We offer two types of optional hand control: one with a joystick and another with large color-coded buttons.

Additionally, our Rehab line of hospital beds can be controlled with voice-activated personal assistants. Devices like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home can be set up to control the bed.

Accessories for Improving the Appearance of Your Bed

Hospital beds are functional medical equipment, but that doesn’t mean they can’t look good. Your hospital bed can fit with the rest of your bedroom furniture. Beds like the Supernal 5 are designed so that their internal frames and mechanisms are hidden from view. They look more like a standard bed than a stereotypical hospital bed, while offering a complete selection of adjustments, including head, foot, hi-low, and the Trendelenburg position.

A number of our beds are compatible with natural wood finish headboards and footboards. We offer a cherry finish headboard and footboard, which can be used with any hospital bed from our lineup. Cherry wood trim added to our Rehab Line heavy-duty beds offer a more elegant look for your home.

Miscellaneous Accessories

It’s vital to the well-being and mental health of patients that their hospital bed is comfortable and pleasant in addition to being a practical piece of medical equipment. Let’s finish this article with a few accessory ideas that make a hospital bed a more enjoyable place to spend time.

• An overbed table easily positioned for eating or using a laptop is a practical accessory. It makes it easier for bed-ridden users to eat, work, and occupy their time.
• An anti-slip mat is a fabric pad that helps patients to sit comfortably upright without sliding down the bed.
• Gap fillers and rail protectors are made of soft padding in various shapes. Their role is to fill the gap between the mattress and the bed rails or head and footboards. These areas are often called entrapment zones because there is a risk that a patient may become trapped in the gap.
• Bed sensors are another critical component of home healthcare. They can help with monitoring and improve the quality of care, especially for home caretakers with other regular responsibilities.

You can take a look at our range of hospital bed accessories to find some of the accessories that are compatible with Transfer Master beds.

To learn more about hospital beds, mattresses, and choosing hospital bed accessories for yourself or someone you care for, contact us today.

Learn More About Transfer Master Hospital Beds

There are many options for hospital beds. Start here to have your questions answered, to learn more about hospital beds, or to see the options that can be added to your hospital bed to make it even better.

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