Medical equipment includes nursing apparatuses combined with beds, capable of various functions.
Japanese Patent Application No. 1-38682, which was filed on Feb. 17, 1989 corresponding to Japanese Patent Publication 2-215,462, laid open on Aug. 28, 1990, discloses an improved bed apparatus. Considering the housing circumstances in Japan, the known bed apparatus can be used in a narrow room such as a 6-mat room (about 360 cm.times.270 cm) or a 4.5-mat room (about 270 cm.times.270 cm), for example, and is provided with features for easily laying or taking down a sick person or the like on or from a bed body. Further, this bed apparatus is devised to be of help for rehabilitation of a sick person or the like.
The aforementioned bed apparatus comprises a pair of guides, which are fixedly provided on both end portions along the longitudinal direction of the bed body and extend in the cross direction of the bed body. A pair of sliders is mounted to slide along these guides in the cross direction of the bed body. The sliders slide outwardly along the guides outwardly and extend from side portions of the bed body. Upright bars are fixedly mounted on the sliders respectively, to upwardly extend from the sliders. Support members are mounted to be movable along the upright bars. Stops are provided to stop the support members at arbitrary positions along the upright bars.
In the aforementioned bed apparatus, the pair of upright bars are movable between positions within and out of the cross-directional dimension of the bed body, in response to the sliding movement of the sliders along the guides. The support members are vertically movable along the upright bars and stoppable in any desired position, independently of the positions of the upright bars. Consequently, the pair of support members can be located at any arbitrary positions within a range of a space above the bed body and to the side of the bed.
Thus, it is possible to move a sick person or the like from the bed body, to a side portion of the bed body and vice versa, by the movement of the support members. According to this bed apparatus, therefore, it is possible to easily take the sick person or the like down from the bed body for bathing or helping movement into a wheelchair, and vice versa.
In order to move the sick person or the like as described above, two parallel side bars, for example, are interconnecting the pair of support members with each other, so that the sick person or the like is laid between the side bars. Appropriate hanger members, which are laid under the body of the sick person or the like, are hung on the side bars. The side bars extending across the pair of support members are capable of suspending various configurations or structures of hanger members. Thus, it is possible to move the sick person or the like in any desired condition such as a lying or sitting condition, by selecting appropriate types of hanger members.
The aforementioned sliders are preferably kept within the cross-directional dimension of the bed body to the utmost, when the same are not in laterally extending positions. Thus, the lengths of the sliders along the cross direction of the bed body must be substantially equal to or shorter than the cross-directional dimension of the bed body, whereby, the sliders cannot extend from the bed body to an extent exceeding the cross-directional dimension of the bed body even if the same projects most from the bed body.
On the other hand, the upright bars are fixedly mounted on the sliders, as hereinabove described. These upright bars are adapted to vertically and movably guide the support members holding the side bars. The side bars are adapted to hold the hanger members for carrying the sick person or the like. In order to enable the carriage of the sick person or the like who is lying on the bed body, the side bars must be locatable substantially at central positions along the cross direction of the bed body, and the support members as well as the upright bars must responsively be locatable at substantially central positions of the bed body.
In order to enable movement of the sick person or the like who is carried by the hanger members to a position sidewardly displaced from the bed body, the side bars, the support members and the upright bars must be sidewardly movable beyond the range of the cross-directional dimension of the bed body.
As hereinabove described, particularly the range of movement of the upright bars is provided by the sliding operation of the sliders. The upright bars are most typically located at substantially central positions along the cross direction of the bed body when the sliders are retracted with respect to the bed body, while the same are located at the side of the bed body when the sliders extend laterally as much as possible from the bed body.
According to the aforementioned structure, however, it is impossible to sufficiently displace the upright bars laterally away from the bed body, since the upright bars are fixedly mounted on the sliders. More specifically the lengths of the sliders are increased to be substantially equal to the cross-directional dimension of the bed body so that the sliders extend laterally from the bed body by dimensions substantially equal to the cross-directional dimension of the bed body, at the maximum possible extension for the sliders. On the other hand, the upright bars must be mounted in substantially central positions along the longitudinal directions of the sliders, so that the upright bars can be located at substantially central positions along the cross direction of the bed body. Thus, the upright bars cannot be moved laterally beyond half the cross-directional dimension of the bed body even if the lengths of the sliders are maximized. To this end, the bed body itself may hinder nursing of the sick person or the like at the side of the bed body.