27Jun

Hospital bed head units of today and the future

June 27, 2022 tedisel

For some years now, hospital bed heads units, driven by the improvement in hospital equipment, have been providing an optimised, intuitive environment in accordance with the space in which they are located

That is to say: they are the perfect complement to hospital beds, forming a block that is designed and installed according to the type of patient who is going to use it and the medical speciality, floor or type of hospital.

In this post, Tedisel would like to talk about the main characteristics of hospital bed head units, their functions, trends in the health sector and what options are available in the market.

What are hospital headboards?

Hospital headboards, far from what they may indicate at first glance, are not the equivalent of the headboard of a normal, typical household bed.

They are part of the hospital bed, yes, but with a different function and design. Specifically, they are the structures, usually arranged vertically or horizontally, which are attached to the wall and are placed precisely on the headboard area of the bed or near the side of the bed.

ICARUS Model

What are they for?

We are referring to those elements that, when we have been patients in a hospital, we have used to warn the nurses of anything. These devices light up indirectly in case someone has to enter or leave the room.

Among their main characteristics is the fact that they have numerous sockets, each with different purposes, but especially electrical, data and gas sockets. On the other hand, we must distinguish between headboards designed for common hospitalisations, or those intended for ICU units, resuscitation rooms, post-operative units, etc. In this case, they are usually more sophisticated.

In any case, they are completely common and necessary elements in hospitals all over the world.

“Among their main characteristics is the fact that they have numerous sockets, each with different purposes, but especially electrical, data and gas sockets.

N270 Model

Characteristics and trends in headboards

Hospital bedside cabinets act as devices that have been conceived to provide the physician with close and simple access to supplies needed for therapy. As we said, this is the case of gases, vacuum or electrical energy, fundamentally. In addition, the bedside cabinets provide the patient with ‘extra’ services, such as lighting, alarms or communication systems.

These bed heads form an aesthetically and functionally harmonious whole with the bed, one of the most important parts of the patient unit. The function of the bed in the hospital is to accommodate the patient and has characteristics specifically adapted to his or her ailments. It must always be in perfect condition to ensure that the patient is comfortable, as this is where he or she will spend most of the day during hospitalisation.

Whether headboards are intended for Critical Care services (ICU, ICU, etc.), emergency / resuscitation services, wards of intermediate complexity, or other hospital sectors where their services are required, in the last decade headboards have taken on a new dimension at an aesthetic level, as a whole.

As a result of the greater importance given to the holistic and biophilic experience in hospitals, to the well-being not only of the patient but also of the medical staff, to facilitating their work and the hospitalisation periods of users, headboards have been adapted to blend in with their surroundings. What does this mean? That the type of hospital headboard of yesteryear, useful and efficient but alien to the style of the bed and the room, no longer applies in the new and remodelled hospitals.

Bed heads today are part of a whole: of the bed, of the room, of the type of hospital and of the type of patient. They are oriented and designed specifically for a particular profile, be it paediatric patients, VIP stays, etc.

AURA Model

An essential piece of hospital equipment

The hospital bedside goes far beyond the mere hook-up of electrical and diagnostic equipment and the basic functions of lighting, voice recognition and oxygen-enriched gas outlet.

This complex system is continuously being improved to be more omnichannel and adaptive than ever before with a single device. This means that the headboards are intended to facilitate services to all types of patients, from those able to alert the nurse at the push of a button to those who are intubated, sedated or temporarily immobile.

Solutions such as push-button knob, voice activation, etc. are part of the hardware that takes care of the nurse-patient call. Which is ultimately one of the main functions that is not fixed or that can lead to the most uncertainty.

MAYA Model

The most complete catalogue of headboards

In Tedisel Medical we have a wide catalogue of hospital bed heads, integrated wall systems, for all types of patient rooms in hospitals.

Our headboards follow the trend in the health sector of fully integrating the headboard into the room design. Especially in new constructions and remodelling of health centres, this is what is being sought after, both for aesthetic reasons and for simplicity and ease. In short, headboards are elements that offer a very important service, that influence the well-being and recovery of the patient, and that are increasingly integrated at an aesthetic and formal level.

Among our headboards, the following stand out:

Aura
Our modular bed head
It can be customised to adapt to the needs of different areas: hospitalisation, critical areas, operating theatres, etc. It is the perfect equipment to hold different accessories. From a simple rail to a complete sliding system with infusion pumps and trays.

N270

Monobloc bed head
Our best known model in the world, the most sold and installed in thousands of projects; optimal for hospitalisation and general care areas.

Adonis
Known for its design and high load capacity, this is the optimal solution for confined spaces especially in critical areas. It can also serve two beds simultaneously in any area. Adonis allows multiple configurations, depending on the needs of the area where it is to be installed. Its structure integrates two tubes for the placement of various accessories.

Icarus
It is an attractive and futuristic headboard. Its innovative design is mainly customised for hospitalisation and VIP.

Maya
With the little ones in mind, Maya is our paediatric bed head created to provide a cosier and more pleasant space to facilitate the stay of the little ones in hospital.

Ais
Artistic bed head
A bed head, which allows you to customise the front to give a more welcoming atmosphere to the area where you want to install it: maternity, paediatrics, hospitalisation, VIP, etc. Ais, with a minimalist and clean design, allows the placement of accessories by means of a technical rail to the wall.

Our latest project with AIS bed head

One of our latest projects is the installation of the AIS model in the Latorre Hospital, in Soria. This bed head with customisable front was integrated 100% at design level in the decorative wall vinyl of the room.

The AIS model adds an architectural touch. It allows you to customize the front to give a cosier atmosphere to the area where you want to install it: Maternity, Paediatrics, Hospitalisation, VIP, etc. Among its features, it stands out for its minimalist and clean design, allowing the placement of accessories by means of a wall-mounted technical rail, such as infusion pumps and IV pole holders, trays and drawers, monitor support arms, examination lamps or medical baskets, among others.

11Jan

Patient safety in critical areas

January 11, 2022 tedisel

We can all learn from mistakes, but there are many mistakes that are fatal and must be avoided, especially when it comes to medical and health care. 4 out of 10 patients worldwide suffer damage in primary and outpatient healthcare.

80% of these damages can be prevented. In this context, patient safety is presented as a discipline in which all types of hospitals and health centers work. At the end of the day, caring and healing is its reason for being. However, little is said about how hospital electrical safety can help ensure the well-being of patients.

What is patient safety?

In 1948, the Declaration of Human Rights was promulgated, according to which, “everyone has the right to an adequate standard of living that ensures health and well-being, as well as their family…”.

Although health care is an unquestionable human right, the reality is that in many cases this care is deficient, especially when it comes to the poorest countries.

In this context, the culture of patient safety acquires relevance and governments, states and institutions around the world have put on the table a series of measures and recommendations with the aim of clarifying the parameters that define what patient safety is. And, in this way, work on safe and quality healthcare.

The World Health Organization defines patient safety as a discipline whose objective is “to prevent and reduce the risks, errors and damages suffered by patients during the provision of healthcare.” The WHO also supports that the cornerstone of safety culture is “the best continuous based on learning from errors and adverse events.”

Along the same lines, Cristián Rocco and Alejandro Garrido, authors of the publication Patient Safety and Safety Culture, consider that this discipline should pursue the objective of “reducing damage and reducing error since error is an inherent condition of human condition”.

In the case of Spain, the 2016 National Study on Adverse Effects linked to Hospitalization (ENEAS Study) reviewed 5,624 medical records, in which 8.4% of adverse events were found. 4.4% led to death and 42.8% were preventable. Once again, if we extrapolate this data to the 4.6 million hospitalizations in 2006, more than 7,300 deaths a year could be prevented.

Consequences of the lack of patient safety

In many cases, the most immediate consequence of unsafe patient care is death. There is a lot of news that we can read throughout the year about people who have died due to late care in collapsed health centers, for example. Along these lines, the Rocco and Garrido study mentions To Err is Human, a 1999 study published by the United States Institute of Medicine, as a reference.

Within the framework of this study, 30,000 medical records were reviewed, detecting 3.7% of adverse events, of which 58% were preventable and 13.6% resulted in death. The authors of the publication extrapolated these data to the volume of annual hospitalizations. They concluded that health care-related adverse events could cause between 44,000 and 98,000 deaths in the United States, at a cost of between $ 17 million and $ 28 million a year.

The conclusion is clear: as the American publication says, erring is human, but a culture of patient safety helps reduce this margin of error and save the lives of thousands of people.

Most common adverse events

The first step to an effective and quality patient safety culture is risk prevention and the detection and investigationof medical errors and common adverse events. In this sense, a 2005 ENEAS study established that the most common adverse events were related to:

Medication
Nosocomial infection
The cares
The procedure
The diagnosis

At a global level, the WHO also points out very similar worrisome situations:

Medication errors are among the leading causes of preventable harm and injury in healthcare.
Infections affect 7 out of 100 hospitalized people in high-income countries and 10 out of 100 in low- and middle-income countries.
25% of patients suffer complications due to unsafe surgical procedures. In most cases, the patient dies directly during the intervention or immediately afterwards.
Unsafe injection practices in healthcare settings.
Diagnostic errors affect about 5% of adults who go through ambulatory care.

On the other hand, there are other types of adverse events related to the facilities of the hospital or health center. In this case, we would be facing two main types of accidents:

Accidents related to the building and its facilities.
Natural disasters: accidents related to the environment and meteorological problems.

Is there a regulation on key aspects of patient safety?

As we said before, in the professional field patient safety has become a subject of study and on which to legislate both at the national and international level. In this sense, there are some important key events and documents for promoting a culture of patient safety:

In 2004, the World Alliance for Patient Safety (now the Patient Safety Program) was created. The main objective that is set is “above all, do no harm”, as its motto says.
Since 2005 there is the Joint Commission International Center for Patient Safety, considered the first center in the world dedicated exclusively to patient safety and collaborating with the WHO.
In 2006, within the framework of the Warsaw Declaration on Patient Safety, the following needs were outlined: establish an Incident Notification System, promote a systematic approach to the culture of patient safety, and involve citizens and patients in improving this security.
In the case of Spain, the country has the National Health System Patient Safety Strategy, a document whose main objective is to promote and improve the culture of safety in health sector organizations.

In Colombia, for example, in the field of hospital security, they have the RETIE certificate (RETIE Technical Regulation of Electrical Installations). The objective of this certification is to guarantee “the protection of people, preventing, minimizing or eliminating risks of electrical origin”.

The importance of hospital safety

Although there is much legislation and interest in promoting a culture of patient safety, it focuses exclusively on the human sphere of action, focusing on how to avoid human errors that result in harm to the patient. However, there is not much scientific literature focused on hospital safety, a key pillar also in health care.

Hospitals are unique spaces, intended for the care of patients and sick people or those who require some type of surgery. For this reason, it is a health scenario where security must be applied in a concrete way both in relation to the facilities and to the medical work within the hospital center.

Although it is not common for electrical failures to occur in hospitals … So it can happen. This is demonstrated by data from the report Structure Fires in Health Care Facilities, prepared in 2017 in the United States by the National Fire Protection Association NFPA. The study collects information for the period 2011-2015 and detects an average of more than 5,700 fires in Health Centers. The second cause of these fires was failures in electrical installations.

Hospital protection and engineering: solutions

As experts in hospital engineering, we want to talk about some guidelines to take into account to guarantee the good state of the electrical safety of a hospital or healthcare center. They are as follows:

It is necessary to have an uninterruptible power supply system so that more critical areas such as the ICU or operating rooms always have specific loads in the event of the main power system failure.
For the automatic detection and location of electrical faults it is necessary to have an IT power supply system.
Have a team of experts who offer advice on electrical safety.
To avoid contact voltages in critical areas, the most sensitive areas of hospitals are the ground connections.

Conclusion

Patient safety is essential to provide efficient and quality medical care. However, in most cases the approach given to this culture of patient safety focuses on the human sphere, without taking into account the importance of avoiding risks in hospital electrical installations.

However, from ETKHO with this article we have wanted to value the importance of hospital engineering and of having high quality technological solutions to preserve patient safety.

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