Author: drthomas

Bedside table is a common piece of hospital equipment placed within a patient’s reach at the bedside to support safe storage, organization, and daily care activities. It may look simple, but it sits at the intersection of patient experience, infection prevention, falls risk, medication safety, and nursing workflow. In many facilities it is treated as furniture; in others it is managed like medical equipment because it is patient-adjacent, high-touch, and sometimes includes electrical outlets, locks, or integrated accessories.

An **Alternating pressure mattress** is a pressure-redistribution support surface used in hospitals, long-term care facilities, and home-care programs to help **manage and reduce risk factors associated with pressure injuries** (also called pressure ulcers). It is considered a piece of **hospital equipment** and a **clinical device** because it changes how pressure is distributed at the patient–mattress interface over time, rather than relying only on a static foam surface.

Mattress pressure redistribution refers to a category of support surfaces—mattresses, mattress replacements, and overlays—designed to redistribute pressure at the skin–support interface and help manage contributing forces such as shear and friction. These clinical devices are used across hospitals, long-term care, rehabilitation, and sometimes home care, most commonly as part of broader pressure injury (also called pressure ulcer) prevention and management programs.

A **Bedside rail system** is a set of side rails and related hardware attached to a hospital bed (or compatible frame) to provide boundary support, handholds, and attachment points for safe care. It is common hospital equipment in acute wards, intensive care units (ICUs), emergency and recovery areas, rehabilitation, long-term care, and sometimes in home care.

A **Bariatric bed** is specialized hospital equipment designed to support safe care for patients with higher body weight and/or larger body dimensions than a standard inpatient bed is built for. In everyday operations, the Bariatric bed sits at the intersection of clinical safety (falls prevention, pressure injury prevention, line and airway protection), staff safety (manual handling risk), and logistics (room fit, transport routes, cleaning workflows, and maintenance support).

Hospital bed manual refers to a manually operated hospital bed—mechanical hospital equipment designed to support patients during assessment, treatment, recovery, and long-term care, with position changes performed by hand cranks, levers, or hydraulic mechanisms rather than electric actuators. In many facilities, a Hospital bed manual is still a core piece of medical equipment because it is simple, widely deployable, and less dependent on reliable electrical infrastructure.

Hospital bed electric refers to a powered hospital bed designed to adjust position (such as height, head-of-bed, and knee/leg sections) using electric actuators controlled by a handset or integrated control panel. It is a ubiquitous piece of hospital equipment across acute care, long-term care, and many procedural and recovery environments, and it directly affects patient safety, staff workflow, and the reliability of day-to-day bedside care.

Adhesive bandage is a small, self-adhering wound covering used to protect minor skin breaks and support simple wound care. In everyday clinical work it may look “basic,” but it touches many important hospital concerns: patient safety (skin injury, allergy, infection prevention), clinical workflow (fast coverage of minor wounds and puncture sites), supply chain (high-volume consumable), and standardization (many sizes, materials, and sterility options).

Cotton tipped applicator is a small, disposable medical device consisting of an absorbent cotton tip fixed to a short shaft (stick). It is widely used across hospitals, clinics, laboratories, and outpatient settings for tasks that require controlled application, gentle cleaning, or collection/transfer of small amounts of material.

Cotton balls are small, compressible bundles of absorbent fiber used throughout healthcare for simple, high-frequency tasks like applying solutions, wiping small areas, absorbing minor fluid, and protecting delicate skin. They are sometimes regulated as a low-risk medical device or medical consumable, but classification varies by jurisdiction.