Safety Feature for Bed

Abstract

The safety feature is provided for a bed to limit egress from the bed. The bed includes a mattress platform and guard rail. The guard rail comprises an end and side rails. The safety feature comprises a beam and at least one element freely moving in relation to the beam. The movement of this element makes it impossible to firmly grasp the beam.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

The invention concerns a safety feature for a children's bed with a guard rail for use primarily on children's beds in hospitals, medical institutions, and home care. The safety feature uses freely rotating elements to prevent the patient from falling out of the bed.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The protection of a patient's health is the most important parameter for patient care whether in a hospital, an institution, or in home care. If it involves the protection of a child patient's health, then greater emphasis is placed on their safety. For this reason, the mechanisms and accessories preventing the patient from falling out of the bed accidentally and against the potential risk of injury are constantly being improved. The majority of the inventions concern the actual mechanisms of the side rails.

Document CN200987523 contains a well-known state of the art describing a protective element for children for placement on an adult bed, and represents a bottomless enclosure whose side walls are filled with textiles.

Documents CN203563978 and CN204071378 describe a children's bed that is protected by an insect net connected to a column. The primary use of these inventions is the protection of child patients from insects, thereby ensuring greater comfort for the child. A secondary function is a barrier preventing the child from falling out of the bed.

Other well-known children's beds that are equipped with a guard rail to prevent unwanted falling out of bed comprise side rails and ends made of impermeable material, wooden bars, or textile nets.

An example of such a bed is, for example, document U.S. Pat. No. 7,003,823, which describes a children's bed whose side walls are constructed with a protective net.

In all of the aforementioned documents the protection of the children's bed against climbing out is primarily made by high enclosures. This height is specified by a technical standard. The disadvantage of these solutions is that the barrier that would safely secure the children's bed against children climbing out would not permit the simultaneous manipulation with the child on the bed surface, making it necessary to mechanically lower the height of the side rails for such manipulation. This is primarily unsuitable for hospitals where child patients spend all of their time in bed and it is necessary to have easy and continual access to them.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The drawbacks of the current state of the art are resolved by attaching a safety feature to the frame of the children's bed with guard rails against climbing out, according to the submitted invention attached. The safety feature contains beams with lengths corresponding to the dimensions of a bed arranged to form a structure whose shape and dimensions correspond to the shape and dimensions of the children's beds. The beams provide the benefit of a circular cross-section, permitting a continuous row of axially symmetric elements also of circular cross-section to freely rotate around each beam, while the ends of the beams have a means for attachment. A spacer may be placed between the elements, limiting the creation of larger spaces between them, allowing their even division on the beam. The beams have the benefit of being tubes made of metal or plastic.

The continuous row of elements on the beams makes it impossible to directly grasp the beam between the individual elements. Thanks to the elements rotating freely around the beam, it is impossible to grasp and prevents the child climbing over the bed's safety feature, even when the side rails are of lower height, and allows easier manipulation of the child in the bed.

The safety feature can include devices for attachment to the upper part of the children's bed's frame. The attachment devices are advantageously located at the end of the beams and are adapted for attachment to the upper part of the support columns. The height of the attachment devices limits the distance of the beams from the upper edge of the children's bed, while the height of the attachment device is chosen to prevent injury to the child becoming caught in or by attempting to climb out through the space created between the lower parts of the elements and the upper edge of the children's bed. In one version of the invention the attachment device contains an insertable vertical pin for an opening on the support column. The height of this pin can be adjusted.

In a suitable implementation the elements are axially symmetric along the longitudinal axis of rotation, which passes through the opening for inserting the beam, while the diameter of the opening of an element is greater than the diameter of the beam. The elements are made with a smooth surface and non-toxic materials, i.e. a suitable plastic.

The distances of the bars from the upper edge of the side rail and from the upper edge of the entire bed are selected to prevent the danger of injury to the child becoming caught in or by attempting to climb out through the space created between the lower parts of the elements and the upper edges.

DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES ON THE DIAGRAMS

The invention is explained in detail using diagrams, where:

FIG. 1 depicts the overall view of the bed with the safety feature

FIG. 2a depicts a detail of an element in a suitable installation

FIG. 2b depicts a cross-section of an element on the beam in a suitable installation

FIG. 3 depicts the side view of the bed with the safety feature

FIG. 4 depicts a suitable installation of the attachment of the safety feature on the bed

EXAMPLES OF IMPLEMENTING THE INVENTION

FIG. 1 shows a safety feature 1 for a children's bed 2 with a guard rail 3 against climbing out of the bed according to the invention, which is arranged for attachment to the frame 4, which can be the ends 6 of the bed 2, the side rails 5 or the support columns 15. The children's bed 2 contains an undercarriage or static lower section, a mattress platform and a guard rail 3 containing side rails 5 and the bed end 6. In a suitable implementation the guard rail 3 is removable or height adjustable, as can be seen in FIG. 1, where the side rail is in the lower position and in the middle position, though the side rails 5 can be placed in the upper position, where its upper edge is on the sale level of the upper edge of the bed end 6. The safety feature 1 contains beams 7 with a length corresponding to the dimensions of the children's bed 2, arranged in a structure corresponding to the bed 2 in terms of shape and dimensions. The beams 7 provide the benefit of a circular cross-section. Each beam 7 is equipped with a row of elements 8 freely rotating around the beam 7, while the ends of the beams 7 are equipped with a means for attachment 10. In a suitable implementation the elements 8 do not intrude over the edge of the mattress platform.

FIG. 2a depicts a suitable implementation of an element 8, which is equipped with an opening 9 for placement on the beam 7. Each element 8 is borne by the beam 7 so that the axis of the beam 7 passes through the axis of the rotating element 8, as is evident in FIG. 2b, which depicts a cross-section of an element 8, which is borne by the beam 7. A suitable implementation for this characteristic is the placement of the axis (in the case of a rotating element) or the centre of gravity (in the case of an element with an irregular shape) of the element 8 close to the axis of the beam 7. The ideal bond for this implementation is a coaxial or rotational bond. In a suitable implementation the elements 8 are round in shape, though in an alternative implementation they can be any shape, since free rotation around the beam is important for the purpose of the invention. The dimensions and number of elements 8 are adapted so that a continuous row of bodies 8 without spaces is created, thus preventing the direct grasping of the beam 7 by a child's hand. In an alternative implementation the shape of the element 8 that is attractive to a child patient can be used, e.g. a combination of shapes of angular bodies with round bodies, or it is also possible to make it more attractive by combining materials with a different reflexivity of various wavelengths. In another alternative implementation the element 8 can be hollow and filled with material that generates sounds when the element 8 moves.

In an alternative implementation it is possible to use only one rotational body 8 corresponding to the length of the and be wound around the beam's 7 entire length. An example of this alternative would be a tube encircling the entire beam 7.

In an alternative implementation it is possible to place at least one limiting unit 11 on the beam 7 to fill the space between the elements 8 if their total length does not entirely correspond to the entire length of the beam 7. This limiting unit 11 is seen in FIG. 3. The limiting unit 11 can also be rotational.

The safety feature 1 is meant to be attached above the guard rail 3 of the bed 2, as can be seen in FIG. 3. In a suitable implementation the shorter beams 7 are solidly attached using a means of attachment 12 to connect it to the longer beams 7, though in an alternative implementation they can also be connected to each other in the opposite manner. The longer beams 7 are solidly attached using a means for attachment 13 to the frame 4 using a pin 14. In the given example the frame 4 is represented by the columns 15 of the children's bed 2, as can be seen in FIG. 4. In an alternative implementation the shorter beam 7 may be attached to the longer beam 7, which is attached to the frame 4. In another alternative implementation, the beams 7 can be attached using common means for attachment 8 at the same level. There is also another way to attach the safety feature 1 to the children's bed 2 that a regular expert knowledgeable in the state of the art is capable of implementing.

The safety feature 1 includes in the corners a means 10 for attachment to the frame 4 of the children's bed 2. The means 10 for attachment to the frame are equipped with a vertical pin 14 that is inserted into an opening in the frame 4. The height of the pin 14 determines the distance of the beam 7 from the relevant upper edge of the children's bed or the distance between the lower part of the elements 8 and the upper part of the children's bed 2. The height of the pin 14 is chosen to prevent injury to the child becoming caught in or by attempting to climb out through the space created between the lower parts of the elements 8 and the upper edge of the children's bed 2. In an alternative implementation the safety feature 1 can be attached separately to the side rails so that it moves together with the side rails.

In an alternative implementation the safety feature 1 is removable, either whole or in part.

LIST OF REFERENCE NUMBERS

• 1 safety frame
• 2 children's bed
• 3 guard rail
• 4 frame
• 5 side rail
• 6 end of bed
• 7 beam
• 8 element
• 9 opening in element
• 10 means of attachment
• 11 limiting unit
• 12 device for attaching upper beam
• 13 device for attaching lower beam
• 14 pin
• 15 column

Claims

1. A safety feature for a bed to guard against climbing out of the bed, the bed including a mattress platform and guard rail, the guardrail comprising an end and side rails and support columns, the safety feature comprising a beam and at least one element and at least one limiting unit to fill a space adjacent the element the element and the limiting unit freely moving in relation to the beam, the element and the limiting unit attached above the entire guard rail.

2. The safety feature for the bed according to claim 1, wherein movement of the element with regard to the beam is rotational.

3. The safety feature for the bed according to claim 1, wherein the element and the limiting unit has a coaxial bond with the beam.

4. (canceled)

5. The safety feature for the bed according to claim 1 wherein the safety feature is attached above part of the guard rail.

6. The safety feature for the bed according to claim 1 wherein the safety feature is attached to the side rails.

7. The safety feature for the bed according to claim 1, wherein the safety feature is located outside the edge of the mattress platform.