Patent Application
20120036638
The present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses such as hospital beds and particularly, to hospital beds having movable mattress support sections for moving a patient to a variety of positions. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to patient support apparatuses used with patients that are connected via patient care lines to medical devices such as IV pumps.
Patients in hospitals are oftentimes connected to various types of medical devices by patient care lines. For example, a patient may receive intravenous (IV) fluids from an IV pump via a tube or hose. As another example, a patient may be connected via wires to a heart monitor such an electrocardiograph (EKG). Patients may be coupled to other equipment such as pulse oximeters, blood pressure monitors, and electroencephalographs (EEG's), via patient care lines. Patients connected to this type of medical equipment are oftentimes supported on hospital beds having pivotable mattress support sections. Such hospital beds have various powered actuators, such as electric linear actuators or hydraulic cylinders, which raise, lower, or otherwise move the mattress support sections to reposition the patient in a desired manner. Such hospital beds may also have motors that raise, lower, and tilt an upper frame that supports the mattress support deck relative to a base frame of the bed.
Hospital beds also typically have siderails along the sides of the bed. IV poles may be coupled to IV pole sockets of the bed on some occasions and carry IV pumps or other types of patient care equipment. Line management devices are sometimes coupled to the IV pole sockets and some IV poles even include line management devices. During articulation or movement of the mattress support sections of the bed, it is possible for the patient care lines to catch on portions of the bed, such as the siderails, or other equipment, and become tensioned inadvertently. In some instances, the patient care lines may become tensioned simply due to running out of slack without catching on anything else. In extreme cases, the lines may become disconnected from the patient or from the associated medical device due to the tensioning of the lines. Sometimes IV lines may become kinked or blocked which typically results in an alarm being generated by the associated IV pump.
The present invention comprises one or more of the features recited in the appended claims and/or the following features which, alone or in any combination, may comprise patentable subject matter:
A patient support apparatus for use with a patient coupled to a medical device via at least one patient care line is provided and may have a frame including at least one movable patient support section. The patient support apparatus may have an actuator that is coupled to the movable person support section and that is operable to move the movable patient support section. The patient support apparatus may further have control circuitry coupled to the actuator to command operation of the actuator. The control circuitry may cease operation of the actuator in response to receiving a signal indicative of an unwanted condition of the at least one patient care line.
The unwanted condition of the at least one patient care line may comprise unwanted tensioning of the patient care line, kinking of the patient care line such as kinking of an IV fluid line, or blockage of the patient care line such as blockage of an IV fluid line. The signal indicative of the unwanted condition may be communicated to the control circuitry via a wired connection between the patient support apparatus and the medical device. In some instances, the signal indicative of the unwanted condition may be communicated to the control circuitry from the medical device via an Ethernet of a healthcare facility. In some contemplated embodiments, the signal indicative of the unwanted condition may be communicated to the control circuitry via a wireless connection between the patient support apparatus and the medical device. For example, the control circuitry may include an acoustic sensor and the wireless connection may comprise sound waves emanating from an audible alarm of the medical device.
The patient support apparatus may also have a line management device that supports at least a portion of the patient care line. The line management device may, in turn, have a sensor that senses unwanted tensioning of the patient care line to produce the signal. The line management device may have a plurality of upstanding fingers and the sensor may be coupled to at least one of the upstanding fingers. The frame of the patient support apparatus may include a socket. The line management device may have a post configured for receipt in the socket. The post may have a first electrical connector coupled to the sensor and the socket may have a second electrical connector coupled to the control circuitry. The first and second electrical connectors may mate together automatically as a result of insertion of the post into the socket.
In some embodiments, the sensor may be situated between the socket and the post or other coupling portion of the line management device rather than being coupled to a finger of the line management device. For example, the sensor may be mounted to the socket. The coupling portion of the line management device may interact with the sensor within the socket such as by imparting a force on the sensor if a line tugs on the line management device. The sensor may comprise a strain gage or force sensitive resistor element, for example.
The movable patient support section of the patient support apparatus may include a head section, a seat section, a thigh section or a foot section. The actuator may include a head section motor, a thigh section motor, a foot section motor, or an elevation system motor. A mattress may be provided with the patient support apparatus and may have a portion supported on the movable patient support section. The movable patient support section may be part of a patient support deck that is movable between a horizontal position in which the patient is supported in a lying down position and a chair egress position in which the patient is supported in a sitting up position.
By ceasing the operation of the actuator in response to detection of an unwanted condition of the patient care line, disconnection of the patient care line from the patient may be avoided. Patient care lines as contemplated herein, may comprise conduits such as tubes or hoses that carry fluids, including gases and liquids, and may comprise electrical conductors such as wires. The term “medical device” as used in the present disclosure, including in the claims, is intended to cover all types of medical devices that couple to patients with patient care lines. Thus, IV pumps, EKG's, EEG's, blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters, temperature monitors, respiration monitors, ventilators, heart rate monitors, and the like are examples of medical devices in accordance with this disclosure.
Additional features, which alone or in combination with any other feature(s), such as those listed above and those listed in the claims, may comprise patentable subject matter and will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the embodiments as presently perceived.
The detailed description particularly refers to the accompanying figures in which:
According to this disclosure, a patient support apparatus, such as an illustrative hospital bed 10, is configured to stop or cease the movements of at least one of its movable sections in response to receiving a signal indicative of an unwanted condition of a patient care line that is attached to a patient supported on the patient support apparatus. Illustrative bed 10 is a so-called chair bed, in that it is movable between a bed position, as shown in
Referring now to
Frame 20 includes a base 28 and an upper frame 30 coupled to the base 28 by an elevation system 32. Elevation system 32 is operable to raise, lower, and tilt upper frame 30 relative to base 28. Hospital bed 10 further includes a footboard 45 at the foot end 26 and a headboard 46 at the head end 24. Footboard 45 is removed prior to bed 10 being moved into the chair egress position as shown in
Illustrative hospital bed 10 has four siderail assemblies coupled to upper frame 30: a patient-right head siderail assembly 48, a patient-right foot siderail assembly 18, a patient-left head siderail assembly 50, and a patient-left foot siderail assembly 16. Each of the siderail assemblies 16, 18, 48, and 50 is movable between a raised position, as the left foot siderail assembly 16 is shown in
The left foot siderail assembly 16 is similar to the right foot siderail assembly 18, and thus, the following discussion of the left foot siderail assembly 16 is equally applicable to the right foot siderail assembly 18. The left foot siderail 16 includes a barrier panel 52 and a linkage 56. Linkage 56 is coupled to the upper frame 30 and is configured to guide barrier panel 52 during movement of the foot siderail 16 between the raised and lowered positions. Barrier panel 52 is maintained by the linkage 56 in a substantially vertical orientation during movement of siderail 16 between the raised and lowered positions. The barrier panel 52 includes an outward side 58, an oppositely facing inward side 59, a top portion 62, and a bottom portion 64. A user interface 66 is coupled to the outward side 58 of barrier panel 52 for use by a caregiver (not shown). The inward side 59 faces opposite the outward side 58. As shown in
Mattress 22 includes a top surface 34, a bottom surface (not shown), and a perimeter surface 36 as shown in
In some embodiments, seat section 42 also moves, such as by translating on upper frame 30 as bed 10 moves between the bed position and the chair egress position. Of course, in those embodiments in which seat section 42 translates along upper frame 42, the thigh and foot sections 43, 44 also translate along with seat section 42. As bed 10 moves from the bed position to the chair egress position, foot section 44 lowers relative to thigh section 43 and shortens in length. As bed 10 moves from the chair egress position to the bed position, foot section 44 raises relative to thigh section 43 and increases in length. Thus, in the chair egress position, head section 40 extends generally vertically upwardly from upper frame 30 and foot section extends generally vertically downwardly from thigh section 43 as shown in
As shown diagrammatically in
User interfaces 66, 67 each include user inputs that are used by the caregiver or patient to provide input signals to control circuitry 82 of bed 10 to command the operation of motors 70, 72, 74, 76. User interfaces 66, 67 are sometimes referred to herein as user inputs 66, 67 and are shown diagrammatically in
Based on the foregoing, it will be appreciated that bed 10 has various movable sections including deck sections 40, 42, 43, 44 and upper frame 30. Thus, bed 10 has a variety of movable sections that, on occasion, may inadvertently catch on, pull or tug, kink, or otherwise displace, bend, or tension patient care lines in an unwanted manner while the movable sections are moving. In
According to this disclosure, when an unwanted condition of one or more of patient care lines 90 is detected, control circuitry 82 signals motors 70, 72, 74, 76 to cease operation, thereby to stop any movement of deck sections 40, 42, 43, 44 or upper frame 30 that may be occurring. In the
Medical device 92 has one or more sensors (not shown) that detect the unwanted condition of line 90 along with circuitry that is connected to the one or more sensors and that generates an alarm signal which is communicated via link 96 to bed 10. For example, in the situation in which medical device 92 is an IV pump, a flow sensor may be provided for sensing that the flow of IV fluid in the tubular IV line 90 has stopped or is below a threshold amount, which is indicative that line 90 is either blocked or kinked, for example. Additionally or alternatively, a force sensor, such as a strain gage, piezoelectric material, or force sensitive resistor (FSR) may be provided on or adjacent a line connector of device 92 for sensing that line 90 is being pulled or tensioned beyond a threshold amount. Sensors that sense detachment, or impending detachment, of a line 90 from a patient may be included in some medical devices 92. Thus, such a sensor may simply be embodied as software that detects the loss or degradation of an electrical signal such as a signal representative of a physiological parameter of the patient.
Referring now to the example of
Communications link 96, in some embodiments, comprises a cable that connects bed 10 to a wall mounted jack that is included as part of a bed interface unit (BIU) or a network interface unit (NIU) of the type shown and described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,538,659 and 7,319,386 and in U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2009/0217080 A1, 2009/0212925 A1 and 2009/0212926 A1, each of which are hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. In other embodiments, communications link 96 comprises wireless signals sent between bed 10 and a wireless interface unit of the type shown and described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0210917 A1 which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference herein. In some embodiments of the
Referring now to
It will be appreciated that some medical devices 92 are not equipped with sensors for detecting tensioning of patient care lines 90. In the embodiment of
Patient care lines 90 are routed from medical device 92 to patient 11 between fingers 114 of line management device 106. Thus, line management device 106 supports the patient care lines 90. When one or more of lines 90 become tensioned, they will impart a force on line management device 106 which is detected by sensor 104 and communicated to circuitry 82. If the force detected by sensor 104 exceeds a threshold amount, circuitry 82 signals motors 70, 72, 74, 76 to cease operation.
Referring now to
The bottom end 126 of pole 128 is received in a socket 130 of bed frame 20. When end 126 is inserted into socket 130, first electrical connector 124 automatically mates with a second electrical connector 132 that is situated at the bottom of socket 130. Second electrical connector 132 is coupled electrically to control circuitry 82 of bed 10. When one or more of lines 90 supported by line management device 116 become tensioned, they will impart a force on line management device 116 which is detected by sensor 118 and communicated to circuitry 82 via wires 122 and connectors 124, 132. If the force detected by sensor 118 exceeds a threshold amount, circuitry 82 signals motors 70, 72, 74, 76 to cease operation.
In a variant of each of the above-described embodiments, after motors 70, 72, 74, 76 have been commanded to cease operation by control circuitry 82, circuitry commands whichever of motors 70, 72, 74, 76 had been moving prior to receiving the alarm signal from medical device 92 to reverse direction for a short amount of time or distance. By commanding such a reversal of one or more of motors 70, 72, 74, 76, the unwanted condition of line 90 is potentially eased thereby allowing a caregiver to take care of whatever issue is causing the unwanted condition of line 90. For example, if the head motor 70 is being operated to raise head section 40 relative to upper frame 30 when an unwanted tensioning condition of line 90 is detected and communicated to control circuitry 82, the head motor 70 is stopped and then reversed to lower the head section by a small amount, such as for example 1 to 5 degrees, so that the tension in the line 90 is eased. The caregiver can then move the line 90 or the medical device 92. Other ranges of reversal, including ranges having an upper limit greater than 5 degrees and/or ranges having a lower limit less than 1 degree, are within the scope of this disclosure. Different reversal amounts may be used for different ones of motors 70, 72, 74, 76 in some embodiments, including having a reversal amount for some motors 70, 72, 74, 76 and none for others of motors 70, 72, 74, 76.
It will be appreciated that upon detection of the alarm condition of line 90, one portion of control circuitry (such as a portion with a main microcontroller or microprocessor) may signal another portion of control circuitry (such as a motor controller, for example) to reverse the direction of one or more of motors 70, 72, 74, 76 immediately and that the motor control circuitry will respond as quickly as possible, within the parameters of its programming, to stop and reverse the direction of whichever of motors 70, 72, 74, 76 was moving. For at least an instant in time, this control scenario is intended to be within the scope of the phrase “ceasing operation” as well as the situation in which one or more of motors 70, 72, 74, 76 are stopped altogether without the occurrence of any reverse motion. That is, according to this disclosure, whenever a motor or actuator goes from operating in one direction to operating in an opposite direction, the motor or actuator is considered to have been commanded or controlled to be “ceasing operation” regardless of how large or how infinitesimally small the amount of time the particular motor or actuator may actually stop while reversing direction.
Although certain illustrative embodiments have been described in detail above, many embodiments, variations and modifications are possible that are still within the scope and spirit of this disclosure as described herein and as defined in the following claims.
