Hill-Rom

I'm fascinated! I just finished hearing from an employee of Hill-Rom about the complexities and intricacies of one of its main products. Hill-Rom makes hospital beds and medical equipment. A friend of mine has the job of training nurses on how to use these beds. The beds are much more than just beds, "they are medical devices," designed for comprehensive patient care.

An intensive care unit bed can not only move up, down, tilt and contort in all different directions, but it can massage patients, gently wave them to sleep as if sleeping on water, remove heat from specific detected hot spots on a patient's body, rigorously shake patients to keep clogged lungs healthy, and that's not all.

A standard hospital bed that can do the basics often costs around 5K. The super ICU models with all the bells and whistles can easily compare in price with a new SUV.

Because of all they can do, the beds really are not just beds. They can take care of patients, being gentle to wounded areas, in ways that otherwise would tie up nursing staff for an entire day. The newest models will even talk to you in English or Spanish!

Some beds have silver in the mattress which reduces infection. They can also detect ares on your body that are too hot and actively remove that heat to keep you cool, dry, and clean. Patients with pneumonia have a gunky build up in the lungs. This needs to be loosened up by shaking or pounding on the back. The beds can do this so the nurse can go about doing the other 2 million things s/he has to get done.

As said above, these are medical devices, and I am amazed each time I hear or read something else of which they are capeable. The next time I casually lean on one I'll imagine leaning against a Toyota 4Runner.

Maybe we can get one placed in the on call room so it can lull me to sleep by gently rolling massagy waves along my back. That sounds nice!