Stevens Hospital is buying 80 beds with electronic gadgets that will alert nurses if a patient is out of bed, part of a system to help prevent sick patients from falling.
Patients can be seriously injured if they fall while getting in or out of bed.
The beds also are outfitted with scales so patients don’t have to get out of bed to be weighed. A patient’s weight is one of many ways hospitals monitor patients to see if they’re improving.
The hospital is paying $418,777 for the beds, said Rick Canning, the hospital’s chief financial officer. The beds are from Stryker Medical Capital, a Michigan-based firm, and are expected to be in hospital rooms by the end of May.
Even at a cost of $5,234 each, the new beds will save the hospital about $95,500 each year because it will no longer have to rent sensor equipment to tell hospital staff when patients have left their beds, Canning said.
The 80 beds will be used in the hospital’s progressive care unit, where patients often are cared for after treatment in the intensive care unit, and in the hospital’s general medical units.
They are replacing beds that are about 20 years old, Canning said.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486, salyer@heraldnet.com.
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