Smart bed technology at University Hospital in Augusta, Ga., is helping to prevent falls and improve patient safety, according to an article on the Augusta Chronicle website.
If a nurse walks away from a patient bed without setting the brake, she will hear, “Brake not set.” The bed alarm can notify her if a patient is getting out of bed, and will tell the patient “Please don’t get up” if they do.
“We can’t run a hospital without good beds,” said Hugh Hamilton, chair of University Health Inc.
The new beds have safety features, such as a motion-activated night light and can connect with the hospital’s call system so that alerts go directly to a nurse’s smart phone.
Because it is also connected to the call system, clinicians can talk to the patient in the bed through their phones instead of going to the room first to ask the patient what the call was about.