Design modification of the backrest of hospital beds in the armed forces: A proposal

Abstract

Dear Editor, The basic hospital bed (ordinance stores) is an iron/alloy based structure. The head end has an adjustable backrest, which is adjustable both in the vertical plane as well as the angle of inclination. There is essentially no design flaw in the backrest. However, the beds are painted white from one end to other in preparation for staff visits/inspections. Over a period of time, because of the white paint the backrest refuses to adjust in all the desirable places, even the screw for tightening does not work. All this (done in the good spirit of making the bed look as ’White’ as possible) leads to the not so recommendable uncommon sight and uncomfortable for the patients - the u/s backrest, with a propensity to dangle at difficult angles. Despite being a witness to so many of these in the SSQs and have worked all these years, the impact of an u/s backrest had not affected me. It took the admission of my daughter to a tertiary care hospital for me to realise that the discomfort a patient had to undergo with such a backrest and a simple design modification could provide a very simple practical solution to this problem. Making the adjustable/sliding rod of pure stainless steel, instead of cast iron at present will serve two purposes (a) It will not need to be re-painted as the steel would always remain ‘stainless’ and presentable. (b) It will have the same strength as the cast iron. The other design modification is to do away with the use of screws to fix the backrest at appropriate angles. Appropriate slots can be made on both the sliding rod as well as the ‘back’ portion of the backrest with steel hooks provided to lock in.