Medical mattress design and the technological innovation of hospital beds continue to evolve to meet the needs of modern patients and long-term care home residents. It’s important that mattress manufacture processes evolve with the times, ensuring that efficiencies and standards are improved, and costs are brought down. The medical industry requires the highest standards of safety and performance to ensure that patients and residents have the most comfortable beds available, assisting in recuperation, recovery and long-term comfort.
Medical mattress standards
A new set of standards for the testing of mattresses within medical applications and other medical devices, has been developed recently. The series of International Standards (ISO 20343 series) encompass the testing of mattresses and related medical devices where surfaces interface with the body. This will help improve standards where the health of the body’s skin tissues is concerned when a patient is lying down. Traditionally, companies within the mattress manufacture industry will have tested using their own methods, reporting on the key performance characteristics of products, including for metrics involving pressure reduction. Without a standardised testing method however, this can make it difficult to genuinely compare medical mattresses with other examples on the market. The changes to testing standards will help to improve standards of mattresses over the wider industry and make it easier for clinicians, compliance, procurement, and medical engineering stakeholders to work within a framework of accurate device safety testing.
Smart hospital beds
Alongside new mattress design and technology there has also been a significant change in the design of hospital and long-term care home beds. Traditional hospital beds were designed to provide short-term rest for patients who were being treated. They were static, no frills, and had limited scope for adjustments to assist with specific patient requests, injuries, or comfort levels. The longer a patient stayed in hospital, the more damage and discomfort a traditional static hospital bed could potentially do to them.
Smart hospital beds are the latest technological innovation within the industry, with innovative medical mattresses built with comfort and pressure reduction in mind, integrated within a wider bedframe that has advanced features and functionality for the highest level of patient flexibility. It’s the logical step from the automated electric beds that have been present in healthcare institutes for the past 30 years or so, including the Internet of Things (IoT) devices, sensors, pressure layers and built-in scales amongst other features. Alongside the comfort requirements for specific patients, smart beds transmit clinical data for closer monitoring and analytical purposes, intuitive alarms to alert healthcare specialists, and machine learning to improve patient analysis and care over time.
The highest calibre of technical fabric suppliers and those that design and manufacture medical mattress options for hospitals and care homes, understand the need to move with the times. Continuous research and development into medical mattress design and hospital bed applications provide healthcare institutions with the highest standards of support. Whether there is the need for greater comfort for long-term care home residents or specific pressure-relief mattresses and smart bed technology for short-term hospital patients, technology and innovation drive the industry forward. The best mattress supplier will always look forward with new innovation at the heart of everything it does. When choosing a technical fabric supplier, this should be at the centre of your decision, choosing one with the best brand reputation and the specific designs and mattress products to match your requirements.
