The ever-evolving world of healthcare demands top-notch medical equipment and components to optimise patient care. Medical stretchers and bedside tables are two quintessential equipment in any healthcare setting that can improve patient safety. Stretchers play a pivotal role in transferring patients from one place to another, while bed side tables aid in organised patient care within the confines of a hospital room. Buying stretcher trolleys and bedside tables can be overwhelming if you need to know the various types and applications. Let us learn about these essential medical components that can enhance patient comfort and care.
Bedside Tables: The Unsung Heroes of Patient Comfort and Care
Bedside tables are must-have medical furniture in patient care rooms that enable patients to keep personal belongings, medications and more. H shaped tables and U shaped tables are common types that give optimum comfort to patients and other medical staff.
Types of Bed Side Tables
Applications of Bedside Tables
Beyond convenience, bedside table applications extend in patient care, contributing to patient comfort, organisation, and overall healthcare outcomes.
- Medication Management: Bedside tables provide a designated space for patients to store their medications, contributing to patient recovery.
- Meal Support: Patients often require meal trays to eat their breakfast, lunch and dinner at their bedside. Bedside tables serve as a stable platform, allowing patients to eat comfortably in their rooms.
- Personal Belongings: Patients can keep personal items like books, phones, headphones, glasses, and water bottles on their bed side tables, providing them with easy accessibility and comfort during their hospital stay.
- Medical Equipment Storage: Healthcare professionals often use bed side tables to store essential medical equipment necessary for treatment to make it readily available for prompt patient care.
Hospital Stretchers: More Than Transportation Into a Symphony of Care
Stretcher trolleys are crucial pieces of medical equipment used in healthcare and hospital facilities to transport patients or injured people to another location where they can receive medical treatment. Medical stretchers safely transport patients from the ambulance to the emergency room, between different medical departments, or within the hospital premises.
In the event of an injury or accident, stretchers minimise the chance of aggravating the injury and help patients get immediate medical treatment, improving their survival and recovery. Time is vital in emergencies where search and rescue operations use certain stretchers for vertical lifting of an injured person or traversing rough terrain.
Types of Stretchers and Their Applications
Even the most basic type of stretcher design keeps the injured person still and secure. Stretchers have restraints to mitigate the falling risk. Choosing the suitable medical stretcher is significant from various options, like chair stretchers, hydraulic stretchers, wheelchair stretchers, portable stretchers, and emergency stretchers.
- Standard Patient Stretchers
These patient stretchers have a flat surface, wheels, and side rails, ready to tackle situations within the hospital.
- Bariatric Patient Stretchers
These patient stretchers are robust giants that support patient comfort and the safety of the healthcare crew.
- Transfer Stretchers
The quick-change transfer stretchers facilitate lateral patient movements, ensuring seamless transitions from bed to operating table and back.
- Ambulance Stretchers
These wheeled stretchers have big wheels aiming to transport a patient with a reduced lifting possibility and enabling faster movement. Ambulance stretchers are wheeled stretchers that can handle well on rough terrains with the added benefit of a heavier load capacity. The mobile maestros and folding stretchers can harmonise with the ambulance's space constraints, ensuring smooth transport.
- Portable Stretchers
Folding stretchers are easily portable, flexible and versatile. Portable stretchers are compact for rescue situations within limited spaces. Some foldable stretchers have a carry bag for convenience when not in use. These folding stretchers have a slightly lower weight capacity than normal ones, such as emergency stretchers used in an ambulance.
- Pediatric Stretchers
These stretcher trolleys cater to young and playful patients with a tender touch for the comfort and safety of children.
- Stair Chair Stretchers
Stair chair stretchers have excellent manoeuvrability in tight spaces and have designs complying with transporting patients over a staircase.
Applications of Hospital Stretchers
- Hospital wheeled stretchers ensure safe transport from one location to another, irrespective of the situation.
- They are crucial in medical examinations, tests, and procedures as they provide a stable platform for the doctors and team to treat the patients.
- In the surgical suite, transfer stretchers elegantly transport patients to and from the operating table, ensuring a seamless performance during surgery.
Symphony of Patient Care: Hospital Stretchers and Bedside Tables
The coordination between hospital stretchers and bedside tables is optimal for ensuring smooth patient care within a hospital or healthcare facility.
- Pre-Surgical Preparation: Before surgery, a stretcher trolley is necessary for patient transportation to an operating room and to ensure smooth transfer. Bedside tables in pre-operative areas provide a place for patients to prepare with proper medications and necessary documentation with accessibility.
- Post-Surgical Recovery: Following surgery, patients return to their rooms from the ICU on a wheelchair stretcher. Overbed tables support the patient's post-surgical recovery, offering a convenient meal surface, a place for medication, and personal items storage.
- Patient Mobilisation: During the recovery phase, patients leave their beds for various reasons, where bedside tables provide a surface for holding items necessary for mobilisation.
- Medication Administration: Bedside tables facilitate the smooth administration of medications, where nurses prepare and administer them to patients at different intervals.
- Efficiency and Organization: Well-coordinated patient transportation and care support through bedside tables enhance the workflow, improve efficiency and ensure that patients receive the care they need promptly.