You should NEVER allow your parents or older loved ones to go to the hospital alone!

Whenever a patient, whether or not the patient is a Senior, is admitted overnight to stay in a hospital, we recommend that someone else stay with them at all times to advocate for them, to be an observer/witness for what takes place, and to be there for them when they need help. This advocate can be anyone who has the time and who care enough to help; when no family or friends are available, we recommend that the patient or family have a professional caregiver stay with the patient.

I recently was admitted for one night at one of our local hospitals following surgery earlier in the day. The surgery went well and I was admitted to a room for a night to recover while they watched me to make sure I was all right. Because we frequently help others navigate the healthcare system, we knew enough to plan for my wife to stay with me, and it was a good thing that she did.

Although I was asleep most of the time, I woke up four times because I had to go to the bathroom. I was told that I should not get up to go to the bathroom without the nurses’ assistance, so I tried calling them with the call button. On each occasion, a nurse promised to help and then left. Each time, after waiting an hour for them to come back, my wife assisted me and we did fine. After that, we knew that we could only count on ourselves.

If my wife hadn’t been there, I would have had a terrible night. Instead, I made it through the night with her help and I was discharged the next morning.

Note that this occurred at the best hospital available to us. I wouldn’t have agreed to stay at either of the other two local hospitals, because we some of our elderly clients have been discharged from those hospitals with MRSA infections that they acquired during their stays at those hospitals. These are so-called HAIs, Healthcare-Associated Infections; they are also called nosocomial infections which means infections that are the result of treatment in a hospital that are not secondary results of the patient’s original reason for hospitalization.

If at all possible, you should have family or friends go with your parent when they are admitted to the hospital. If not, please consider having a trustworthy home care company provide a caregiver to go with your parent, for the reasons that I’ve mentioned here. I am scheduled to be admitted for a second operation soon, at the same hospital, and I will definitely have someone go with me to to stay in my room overnight again.

By the way, I am NOT someone who is a big critic of the health care system. In fact, I am very proud to say that my father is a retired family physician and I have a lot of trust in the health care system here in our country. However, very often it is wise to have a person go with you as your advocate, helper and observer/witness when you are going to be incapacitated in a medical care setting (or any other setting, for that matter.)

We welcome the opportunity to help you and your loved ones within our GCM service area, which is North San Diego  County. You can find out more about us by visiting our website at A Servant’s Heart Senior Care.

I am sure that many of you have seen the hospital beds that seem to be a standard part of hospital beds. These beds are usually very high – to get into these beds you need a step ladder of sorts. While these hospital beds are somewhat comfortable you will find that many hospitals are replacing these with electric hospital beds.

These electric beds come in twin, queen, full and dual king size beds. Each of the electric hospital beds are very comfortable and they adjust to the various positions that you want. This means that if you want to be sitting up in your hospital bed there is a control panel that will assist you in this maneuver. With this control panel you can adjust the electric hospital bed to rise or stay flat as your body needs.

Since the main issue for patients is care and comfort some manufacturers of electric hospital beds have seen that the height that hospital beds have in general make it difficult the person who is in the bed to leave the bed or to get into bed. As the hospital beds are of a high nature the patients will need help.

To counteract this disadvantage that patients have with the standard hospital beds, there are electric hospital beds that are lower in height and let the patients have some of their dignity intact when they leave their electric hospital beds. This advantage makes life easier for various visitors who feel that they must sit on the beds and talk with their hospital bound friend or family member.

While having lower hospital beds is a great advantage to the patients the electric hospital bed that can be adjusted to different heights is one facet of these electric hospital beds that doctors and nurses will greatly appreciate. With a bed like this you know that you will be very comfortable while your medical examination is going on.

This makes having electric hospital beds a great way for homecare-bound patients to enjoy the time that they need to stay in bed. With various types of electric hospital beds to choose from it is always best to see the various actions that can be found in the beds. There is also one other fact that should be seen to when you are choosing an electric hospital bed for your home.

You will need to take into account the height and comfort level that you want from the various electric hospital beds. With these electric hospital beds you can be sure that falling asleep will be very easy no matter what ailment you suffer from.

by MedAme

For many of us going to hospital means that you need to be prepared to spend some time staying in the hospital. Although staying in the hospital may prove to be a nuisance as the hospital bed could prove to be too high to let you get in and out of bed with any degree of comfort. There is however a shift in the way that hospital beds are being made.

There are many manufactures of hospital beds that have elected to change the way their hospital bed design looks. Instead of the beds that are high and easy for the doctor, but which are too high and hard on the patient, type of hospital bed you will now find many adjustable beds that are replacing these beds. These new hospital beds are being made to a lower height to accommodate the need that patients have to get out of their hospital bed with some dignity.

All of these different types of hospital beds can be found in different sizes as well. This size difference will allow the patients a more comfortable period of recovery. The hospital bed manufactures are now making their very comfortable and adjustable beds in king size, full size, queen and twin beds. These bed sizes are probably one reason why so many hospital and home care patients are now enjoying a goodnight’s sleep.

In addition to the normal type of hospital bed you will find that there is a wide selection of electric hospital beds that can be used to provide comfort and easy healing due to the electric mattress that can be used to lower and raise various sections of the bed. This type of hospital bed makes the whole process of raising yourself to a comfortable position, easy.

There may come a time however, that you might need to get one of these hospital beds for your home, this could be due to any number of reasons but it doesn’t change the fact that you still need one. It’s round about this time that you will need to start looking around for a place that sells hospital beds, and who will also deliver to your doorstep as well.

You can hunt through the various stores that sell these hospital accessories and make your selection of the hospital bed that you feel will be the most useful. And when you finally have the hospital bed that you need, you can rest easy in the knowledge that you will be getting the same type of rest and relaxation ion your very own hospital bed that you would in a hospital. And the aftercare isn’t half bad at home either!