Behavioral Health Bed's Impact on Wound Care

The patient population within our healthcare facilities has changed considerably over recent years.  All areas of healthcare have been affected by the increase in obese, aged and acutely ill patients. These increased patient populations present with a greater number of co-morbidities and resultant complications.  Perhaps no area has been impacted more by these changes than the Behavioral Health arena.  

The acute condition of a greater number of patients with behavioral health issues also places them at risk for a variety of other healthcare issues, namely pressure ulcers and falls.  There were, however, no adequate support surfaces or beds that could address the prevention of these conditions in this patient population. Traditional inpatient behavioral health beds are either a simple flat bed with a hospital grade mattress, or, manual, hand crank medical beds. Standard Medical Beds which required the use of an electrical mechanism to power the bed functions were thought to be significant source of danger for the behavioral health patient for a variety of valid reasons.

However, working with a bed manufacturer, we were able to create a safe electric bed with choice of proper support surface which can provide adequate immersion, envelopment, pressure redistribution and low air loss to aid in the prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers. The behavioral health patients which enter our facility with a combination or medical as well as behavioral health issues can be afforded the same measure of prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers as the other acutely ill patients in our hospital.