For every hour that a hospital bed is spent in repair and out of a room, that is one less patient a hospital can treat. Therefore, it is crucial for hospital bed repair technicians to effectively and swiftly service beds for patients to be treated in a timely manner.
Have you wondered how long it takes to repair a hospital bed? In the content below, we discuss common hospital bed maintenance and repairs and examine how long the average hospital bed is in service for.
We wish medical equipment never broke down, but we understand that hospital beds require routine maintenance and repairs. Therefore, to prevent major breakdowns, it is highly recommended to routinely complete a hospital bed maintenance checklist.
Despite the technological advancements that hospital beds accrued over recent decades, they still face these three most common malfunctions and breakdowns.
Is your hospital bed failing to properly raise and lower for a patient? Are additional adjustments failing to be recognized by the program? Programming behind the hospital bed allows you to adjust it into a position most desirable for the patient. Additionally, programming can also help a patient receive medical attention by the click of a button.
As the most difficult to diagnose the root issue, hospital bed programming consumes the most of a biomedical repair technician’s time. They must assess if the programming derives from a malfunctioning motor or the bed’s junction box. Therefore, successfully repairing a technical programming issue could take anywhere from a few hours to a week.
As a result, the technician must quickly set to work on running diagnostics testing to determine if the programming requires a complete reset. Additionally, with modern hospital beds offering hi-tech equipment and attachments, the technician may also need to repair the footboard and patient siderail control panels.
Bed frames and handrails are another important component to a hospital bed’s functionality. Adjustable through an electric remote or panel, these components help support the mattress and allow technicians to easily transport the patient between rooms.
Traditionally, bed frames and handrails are lightweight and flexible for ease of use. However, if a handrail jams in place or the bed frame support malfunctions, the safety of a patient could be at risk. Therefore, if either the handrails or bed frame appear to be out of order, remove the bed from use and have a medical equipment technician assess the functionality and perform appropriate repairs. Depending on the severity of the issue and if your technician has the proper parts in house, appropriate repairs can span anywhere from a few hours to a few days.
Everyone recalls a grocery store visit or two where you accidentally selected the broken cart with a jammed wheel. Just how imperative wheels are to an effective shopping cart, the same applies to hospital beds.
Without effective hospital bed wheels, medical staff cannot transport patients to operating and recovery rooms in the event they cannot transfer the patient into a wheelchair. Especially when treating patients with severe nerve damage or chest and neck trauma, utilizing a wheeled hospital bed is paramount to minimize additional injuries.
Malfunctioning hospital bed wheels experience multiple issues. The wheel can experience jamming or a failing locking function. Regardless, it is crucial that biomedical technicians make effective repairs to a malfunctioning wheel before returning it into hospital rotation. Usually, simple wheel repairs may only take a few hours if your technician can quickly resolve the issue or replace the wheel entirely.
Servicing and maintaining high-tech hospital beds demands priority. However, as beds are serviced, medical equipment repair technicians often need to bend down to repair a specific motor or other component. As repairs are continually made, technicians can experience chronic pain, fatigue, or even lasting injury.
Therefore, effectively prevent injury and inconvenience by using hospital bed lifts to make repairs simpler and more time effective. Below is a hospital bed lift designed to alleviate overall repair time.
Owning a mechanical lift such as the HBL-1000 will ensure the safest and most efficient hospital bed servicing in the industry. This lift was one of the first safe and economical hospital bed lifting solutions introduced to the industry. Though the HBL-1000 services many hospital bed models, it is most compatible lifting hospital beds manufactured by Hill-Rom, Stryker, Joerns, Gendron, and Drive. The HBL-1000 makes servicing and repair safer and more efficient, raising hospital beds to raise to a proper, ergonomic height for maintenance.
As the standard model, the HBL-1000 offers a lifting capacity of 1,000 pounds. This allows nearly any hospital bed to be safely lifted and moved for maintenance. Available lifting heights for this model provide optimal range for repairs and servicing at limits of 48 inches, 60 inches, or 72 inches.
Though the standard lift arm width is 16 inches, the HBL-1000 offers extending lengths of up to 60 inches, allowing your medical equipment technicians to decide the necessary width needed to lift both narrow and wide hospital beds or any other medical equipment. This feature creates a safer and more stabilized lift that caters to various hospital bed widths as the lift evenly distributes the lifted weight.
This feature offers a dual purpose. The main function of this compartment is to telescope, or swivel out, and lock in place to assist in lifting the bed from the bottom frame. When not in use, the arms can discreetly fold in towards the lift base in order to keep the floor area clear, preventing itself from becoming a tripping hazard. The standard lift length of the telescoping folding arms is 48 inches.
Time is a valuable component at a hospital. With more time allocated to treating patients, you could experience a swifter recovery. As a result, you must find ways to reduce time spent on hospital bed repair.
At SVI Medical, we are dedicated to providing the safest medical equipment repair lifts, customized to perfectly fit the hospital beds at your facility. Recently, our lifts caught the attention of major hospital bed manufacturers – we offer high quality products customizable to your specific equipment needs.
With our custom medical lift components that fit seamlessly with your facility’s equipment, your biomedical technicians will spend less time safely positioning a bed to service in an efficient manner. If your facility has complex hospital beds in need of servicing or repair, know that you can trust our SVI Medical experts to provide the best service lifts and lift components. Contact us today at (800) 321-8173 with any questions.