American medtech giant Stryker has launched the healthcare industry’s first completely wireless hospital bed.
Its new ‘smart’ ProCuity bed is designed to reduce in-hospital patient falls at all acuity levels with a low height of just 11.5 inches, and an ergonomic design.
ProCuity also intends to improve nurse workflow efficiencies and safety, thanks to easy-to-use touchscreens and bed monitoring systems, and help lower hospital costs in the process.
Stryker claims this new line of products will feature the only beds on the market today that can connect “seamlessly” to nurse call systems without the use of cables or wires.
ProCuity is being launched globally in more than 70 countries, with a market focus in North America, Latin America, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australia and New Zealand. The first US units will be shipped in January 2021.
Jessica Mathieson, vice president and general manager of acute care at Stryker, said: “Patient safety is at the foundation of everything we do at Stryker.
“With rising acuity rates leading to increased bed demand, coupled with the continuing challenge of in-hospital falls, we needed to find a solution to further enhance our response to some of today’s most pressing healthcare challenges.
“Leveraging our long history in innovation, ProCuity is the culmination of years of extensive research and feedback from nurses and other healthcare professionals to create what is truly a brilliance-in-a-bed solution.
“It was designed to improve patient outcomes and assist caregivers for years to come.”
Why is a wireless, ‘smart’ hospital bed needed?
A 2018 report from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) found that, each year, between 700,000 and one million patients experience a fall while being treated in a US hospital.
Some 79% of these falls are also thought to occur on or near a bed while the patient is unassisted.
Stryker stated that its own research – conducted via a survey in May 2020 – found that 97% of hospital nurses have encountered a situation where a patient has had difficulty getting out of a hospital bed.
A further 75% reported encountering a situation where a patient has been hurt while getting out of a hospital bed.
A 2010 paper published in online medical journal Clinics in Geriatric Medicine concluded that anywhere between 30% and 51% of in-hospital falls result in some kind of injury as well.
