We are supposed to be getting a hospital bed delivered tomorrow. Any tips? I know it will be useful for elevating mom’s back.

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We are supposed to be getting a hospital bed delivered tomorrow. Any tips? I know it will be useful for elevating mom’s back.

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I hope her insurance pays for it! The nursing home ordered it while she was in skilled nursing rehab program.

Does the lower part of hospital beds adjust to different heights? Mom suffers with edema and should always have legs elevated. She does lift her feet in her recliner. Will this help her get in and out of bed? How do I know the correct height? Will home health help with these issues? We start home health tomorrow. She has Parkinson’s so they will focus on balance and strength.

Also, in the skilled nursing rehab that she just did they placed these cloth boots on because her heels need protection. Can I order these boots somewhere?

Her roommate had a sign in the nursing home that she had to be turned every two hours when in bed. Is this common and what does that mean? A different side? Or back?

The elderly have horrible problems with areas of their skin breaking down.

Do I need special sheets? Are the hospital beds easy to operate? What do we do with the bed after she dies? Is it returned somewhere? Is there a time limit on keeping a bed for home use?

My mom might live to be 100! Who knows? She may outlive me. Sorry, just being sarcastic. Haha.

Anyone with info, please help. Thanks for feedback.

Home Care Medical Equipment and Supplies Mobility Skin Care

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Thanks everyone.

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And while you're contacting her doctor or the social worker, ask about boots for her feet to prevent skin breakdown.

Turning a person every two hours is to prevent skin breakdown. I saw a lot of breakdown on tail bones and heels but it can occur on hips and wrists....anywhere there is pressure on the skin for being in bed most of the time. When you make up the bed, fold a top sheet into 1/4's and place this on the bed's fitted sheet. Your mom will lay on this and when she begins to slide down the mattress as people always do over the course of a day, use the draw sheet to move your mom back up toward the top of the bed. This way the sheet underneath her will protect her skin as you boost her back up and her skin won't be scraping against the sheet which also causes bed sores.

You'll have the play with the bed a bit when you get it, see what it's capabilities are. Some are hand-cranked like was mentioned above, some are mechanized and use a hand-held control to reposition the bed. Whoever comes out to put it together and install it can answer your questions.

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Thanks for your help. Where do we buy such a mattress?

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Contact her doctor, the social worker at the facility, or if she will be getting home health care, that company. They can get insurance approval and order that mattress for you. I’m going to do that for my husband, who is also in rehab and needs one of those mattresses.

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If it's a medicare paid hospital bed, it will not going up and down electrically. You'll have to crank it from the end of the bed. That's the reason we decided to buy our own since that's the one feature we really needed to get grandma in and out of bed. The legs and head will go up. But don't expect them to be as good as the ones in the hospital or rehab. These cheaper "home" models have limited areas that move. On grandma's, I have to pull her all the way up to where her head is almost touching the headboard for it to be right. Otherwise, it's just her head moving up bending at her neck. If grandma ends up being in her bed permanently, I'm going to get a more "pro" model. They are about twice as much but much more flexible. The other disappointment is the up and down range on these cheap models isn't that much. The "pro" models can be lowered to where they are basically sitting on the floor.

You don't need special sheets, a twin sheet will do. I would suggest you get a alternating air mattress to prevent bed sores. They only cost like $40-$50. Dealing with a bed sore will cost many many times more.

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My husband actually has an electric hospital bed provided by Medicare. We did have to pay some, but not much. I think it depends on how the order is written up by whatever agency orders it for OP. Now, this is not one of those fancy beds like the hospitals have. The bed is pretty cheap but it gets the job done.

We are supposed to be getting a hospital bed delivered tomorrow. Any tips? I know it will be useful for elevating mom’s back.

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