Home hospital beds are sophisticated pieces of medical equipment. They are also more expensive than consumer beds. It is reasonable to ask whether a home hospital bed is a wise investment for a senior or their loved ones. What are the benefits of buying a home hospital bed?

In this article, we focus on four ways a home hospital bed improves the lives of seniors with health challenges.

Reduce the Risk of Serious Falls

Falls are the most significant cause of fatal and non-fatal injuries in seniors. Seniors are more likely to fall. When they fall, they are more likely to suffer a severe injury. A large proportion of senior falls happen when getting into bed, out of bed, and even while sleeping.

There are several reasons that beds and sleeping contribute to falls. Seniors may have a bodily weakness that makes it difficult for them to sit and stand without losing their balance. Changes in physical strength and mobility due to medical operations and aging make it hard for seniors to predict their capabilities.

Reduced physical capabilities lead to frustration and increase risky behavior. Incontinence and sleep problems mean that seniors may get into and out of bed more often than younger people. Some medications cause dizziness, lack of coordination, sleep disorders, and physical discomfort, especially during sleep.

A modern home hospital bed is equipped with electronic adjustments and other features that help seniors to get into and out of bed with less risk, and to avoid falling off the bed while sleeping.

Many home hospital beds are equipped with a height adjustment feature. It allows seniors to raise or lower the height of the bed, reducing the strength and coordination required to get into and out of bed.

Hospital beds fitted with bed rails prevent seniors from rolling out of bed while sleeping and provide support while moving around the bed or standing up. The best hospital bed mattresses feature stiffened edges that also offer more support when getting out of bed. Stiffened border edges also help seniors to maintain a central position on the bed and reduce the likelihood they will fall or roll off the edge.

Both height adjustments and stiff-edged mattresses—what's often called border-edge protection—are particularly useful for seniors who use wheelchairs. They significantly reduce the risk of transferring between a wheelchair and a bed.

Home Hospital Beds Help With In-Home Treatment

Seniors are prone to conditions that, without an adjustable hospital bed at home, may require longer hospital stays.

Operations often cause temporary physical weakness and other symptoms that make it impossible for a senior to sleep safely and comfortably at home. Even a simple operation can make it difficult or dangerous for a senior to do something as simple as sitting up unaided.

The exertion of sitting up can damage stitches and muscles, slow healing, and damage already vulnerable parts of the body. A home hospital bed with an electronic head adjustment allows seniors to gently raise their position without physical exertion.

Home hospital beds can also be an invaluable aid for seniors with heart and circulatory issues. Medical professionals advise that, following heart surgery, patients do not spend long periods lying down. Instead, they recommend cardiac chairs. Premium home hospital beds are equipped with head and foot adjustments that allow them to act as a cardiac chair, raising patients gently into a sitting position that benefits their heart and lungs.

Seniors with circulatory issues are prone to developing edema if they spend too long in a supine position—lying on their backs. Edema is swelling caused by the leakage of fluid from blood vessels into tissues. Seniors with circulatory issues often develop edema in their legs. 

One of the best ways to prevent edema is to raise the legs above the level of the heart. Gravity helps the circulatory system to return blood to the heart, reducing the incidence of swelling. Home hospital beds with a foot adjustment make it easy to lift the feet.

Prevention and Treatment of Bedsores

For some seniors, staying in bed for long periods is unavoidable. A standard consumer bed is not designed for the medical needs of bedridden patients. One consequence is bedsores. Bedsores occur when areas of the skin are under sustained pressure, friction, and shear, which is why they are also known as pressure sores or pressure ulcers.

Bedsores cause damage to the skin and the underlying tissue. They range in severity from mild skin irritation to deep wounds that can involve bone damage. For bedridden seniors, bedsores are a severe health risk.

Home hospital beds and hospital bed mattresses are designed to reduce the risk of bedsores and to help bedsores heal. The head and foot adjustments help seniors to change positions in bed, limiting the pressure that any one area is subjected to.

Hospital bed mattresses are engineered so that pressure is intelligently distributed. Specialist pressure relief mattresses include air bladders that can change the patient's position and offer targeted pressure relief to vulnerable areas.

Electric Home Hospital Beds Help Seniors Maintain Their Independence

Home hospital beds play an important role in helping seniors to maintain an independent lifestyle. We've covered some of the ways a home hospital bed allows seniors to stay in their homes comfortably and safely. But an electric home hospital bed also gives seniors a degree of control that was not possible with traditional hospital beds.

Older beds were entirely mechanical. Raising or lowering the height adjustment required getting out of bed and turning a handle. The head and foot adjustments were also manual. Many seniors had to rely on caregivers to make the adjustment.

Modern home hospital beds feature motorized adjustments with electronic remote control. The remote—which might be wired or wireless—can be operated by seniors while they're in bed or preparing to get into bed. Seniors are in control of the bed and its adjustments; they don't have to rely on a carer to move the bed for them. They can change position at will. They don't have to risk getting into and out of the bed while it's in the wrong position.

A home hospital bed is a valuable piece of medical equipment for seniors with a wide variety of health conditions, helping seniors maintain their independence, stay in their own home for longer, and cope with some of the consequences of old age.

About the Author:

Aaron Goldsmith is the owner of Transfer Master. Transfer Master has built electric adjustable hospital beds for the home and medical facility since 1993. He started with a simple goal that hospital beds should allow wheelchair users to transfer independently in and out of bed. 25 years later, their customers are still at the center of everything they do.