US3777317A

US3777317A - Device for defaecation and urination in throw-away bed-pans

Info

Publication number: US3777317A
Application number: US00249178A
Authority: US
Inventors: J Hoborn
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1972-05-01
Filing date: 1972-05-01
Publication date: 1973-12-11
Anticipated expiration: 1990-12-11

Abstract

Today bed-pans used in hospitals and the like have to be cleaned and disinfected after every use and furthermore the use of the same involves lifting of the patients. This invention relates to a throw-away bed-pan made of destructable material and combined with a lifting device adapted to facilitate the handling of the patient. The bed-pan also has means preventing the soiling of the bed and means for containing the used bed-pan.

Description

United States Patent [1 1 Hoborn [4 Dec. 11, 1973 1 DEVICE FOR DEFAECATION AND URINATION IN THROW-AWAY BED-PANS [76] Inventor: Jan Ingvar Hoborn, 77 Gamla Sarovagen, Askim, Sweden 22 Filed: May 1, 1972 21 Appl. No.: 249,178

[52] U.S. Cl. 4/112, 4/113 [51] llnt. Cl A6lg 9/00 [58] Field of Search ..4/110, 1,111, 141,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,418,663 12/1968 Scott ..4/113 3,609,771 10/1971 Avoy 2,353,245 Kiser 4/112 UX 2,955,294 10/1960 Silverstein 4/113 3,008,153 11/1961 Coulter 4/113 X 3,605,128 9/1971 Oden et al. 4/113 Primary Examiner-Henry K. Artis Att0rneyl(arl W. Flocks [57] ABSTRACT Today bed-pans used in hospitals and the like have to be cleaned and disinfected after every use and furthermore the use of the same involves lifting of the patients. This invention relates to a throw-away bed-pan made of destructable material and combined with a lifting device adapted to facilitate the handling of the patient. The bed-pan also has means preventing the soiling of the bed and means for containing the used bed-pan.

5 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures DEVICE FOR DEFAECATION AND URINATION IN THROW-AWAY BED-PANS This inventionrelates to a device for defaecation and urination in throwaway bed-pans.

The primary object of this invention is to create a device for defaecation and urination in throw-away bedpans, that answer the hygienic requirements in hospitals, with a view to eliminating all risks of contamination. In addition, such 'a device shall eliminate all decontamination and disinfection'tr'eatment now called for in the handling of bed-pans designed for reutilization.

Another object is to obtain such a device as to facilitate the hospital work to a considerable extent, whereby personnel may be available for more necessary and exacting works.

Yet another object is to bring about a purely physical relief in the daily work of the personnel by not having to lift the patient every time he wishes to defaecate or urinate, thus eliminating the risk of back affections among the staff. 1

When looking into the routines of nursing, from the hygienic point of view,-attention has lately been focussed apart from on sterility of instruments and equipment used on the handling of objects that have been in contact with the patient, or pus, faeces or urine from the patient.

Defaecation, urination and the handling of faeces are now done in the conventional way with bed-pans and- /or urine bottles for re-utilization, which have to be cleaned and disinfected after every use. Transport, cleaning, disinfection and storing of re-utilize bed-pans involve considerable risks of spreading contagion within the wards, and therefore it is essential that such risks should be eliminated.

The work mentioned above, with conventional reutilize bed-pans, requires a lot of man-hours if it should be properly attended to from the hygienical point of view, and this can be directly converted into money as well as into insufficientnursing of the patients in other respects.

From the patients view it may be said that the bedpans now in use of the re-utilization type do not in any way represent'a comfortable solution'of the problem with defaecation in'the bed. Furthermore, there are considerable difficulties in connection with patients who cannot for various reasons be turned and are forced to use bed-pans of the conventional type, because the patient has to be rolled in the bed to place the bed-pan in position.

All these drawbacks have now quite sursprisingly been eliminated thanks to this invention, whose main characteristic is a device to lift and keep the patients hip region at a somewhat elevated level, a bed-pan made of a destructable material, and a urine conducting cushion secured to the bed-pan, and a plastic bag secured to the bed-pan, arranged so that the cushion and the plastic bag cover the patients genitals during evacuation and/or urination, the plastic bag being arranged to be turned inside out over the bed-pan after finishing defaecation and/or urination.

According to a preferred embodiment, a plastic slip is secured to the bed-pan, whereby the urine conducting cushion is firmly attached to the bed-pan along one of its sides via this slip. The plastic slip is placed between the cushion and the plastic bag, and-so arranged as to cover the patients groin region during defaecation and urination-and thereafter to cover the bed-pan during the subsequent turning inside out of the plastic bag.

According to another, suitable embodiment, the bedpan is provided with a protruding flange to be pushed in under the patient and bekept in place between the patient and the bedding.

According to yet another embodiment, the device for lifting and keeping the patients hip region in elevated position is constituted of an inflatable cushion, consisting of a central and, when inflated, essentially cylindrical body, the two ends of which carry two transversal parts arranged centrally to the body.

The invention will now be secribed in more detail, reference being made to the accompanying drawings which illustrate a device for carrying the method into effect.

In the drawings:

FIG. 1 shows one embodiment of the device to keep the patients hips in elevated position, seen from above;

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of the bed-pan seen from the side; I

FIG. 3 shows the bed-pan from above;

FIG. 4 shows the device according to this invention, applied to a patient.

In the drawings, 1 indicates an inflatable cushion made of plastic material and consisting of a central body 2 which, when inflated, has the shape of a cylinder, to the two ends of which are arranged transversal inflatable portions 3 and 4. To the portions 3 and 4, slips 5a and 5b are secured to the side facing from the body 2. A channel for inflation of the cushion l is arranged through the slip 5a. The body 2 is intended to be placed under the patients lumbar region, across the longitudinal axis, and the portions 3 and 4 are intended to run along the patients sides to stabilize and prevent his turning round the longitudinal axis.

A bed-pan 7 made of an easily destructable material, such as hydrophobic pulp, presents a bowl-shaped portion 8, the edge of which has a brim 9. The brim is on one side of the bed-pan 7 extended so as to form a collar l0 and is bent downwardly on the side opposite to the collar 10, for reasons given below. Furthermore, a plastic bag 11 is firmly secured, preferably by glueing orheat sealing, to the side of the bed-pan 7 opposite to the collar 10, and preferably to the upper side of the brim 9 or to the upper, inner edge of the bowl-shaped portion 8. In addition, a plastic slip 12 is firmly secured to the bed-pan 7, preferably also by heat sealing, and preferably to the already mentioned plastic bag, the slip 12 preferably being affixed to the side of the bed-pan 7 opposite to the collar 10, either on the brim 9 or on the inside of the bowl 8'- r A urine-conducting, preferably high-absorbent cushion 13 formed as a diaper, is secured to the bed-pan 7,

by glueing or heat sealing, on the side opposite to the collar 10, i.e., in the same place as the slip l2 and the plastic bag 11. The cushion 13 is preferably secured to the plastic slip 12 along one of its end sides to allow an increased mobility.

The device according to this invention is to be used in the following manner:

The inflatable cushion l, which beforehand has been placed under a patient and localized transversally by means of the slips 5a and 5b, the outer edges of which are at such a distance from each other that they lie along the longitudinal sides of the bed is inflated through the channel 6 by air or some other suitable gas from a pump or pressure source. Thereby, the hip region of the patient is lifted so much that the bed-pan 7 can be slided in under the patient without tilting it horizontally; the collar 10 is then to be placed under the small of the patients back and between it and the body 2 of the plastic cushion l, which cushion preferably is covered with a sheet. In this way, the bed-pan 7 is kept in position under the patient.

The urine-conducting cushion l3 and the slip 12 is then folded over to covering the genitals of the patient and also his groins. After that the plastic bag 11 is folded over the patients groins region whereupon the patient preferably seizes the free corner of the plastic bag 11 to keep the cushion 13 and the slip 12 in position. During urination, the cushion 13 will absorb and conduct the urine downwardly into the bed-pan and there will be no risk of the urine flowing outside and moistening the surroundings.

The bed-pan 7 takes up all faeces without any risk of contamination of the bed outfit.

After finishing defaecation and urination, the bedpan 7 is slightly pulled backwardly, the plastic bag 11 and the slip 12 are folded towards the foot end of the bed and the urine conductor is folded down into the bed-pan bowl 8. The tissues, napkins or like used for cleaning the patient are also placed in the bed-pan bowl 8 after use. After that, the slip 12 is folded over the bed-pan and the attendant places his hand in the plastic bag 11 and seizes the bentdown part of the brim 9 and pulls the bed-pan 7 into the plastic bag 11, at the same time turning the bag inside out: the bed-pan 7, the slip l2 and the cushion l3, and all faeces and dirty tissues are entirely enclosed in the bag 11. The bag is then sealed in a suitable way. Finally, the plastic cushion l is emptied of air and the patient is replaced on his bed.

The risks of contamination have thus been eliminated and the problem in connection with cleaning and disinfection has also been eliminated. The device according to this invention furthermore involves additional advantages thanks to the fact that it requires less storing space than the conventional steel bed-pans, and the bed-pan bowls may be shaped for stacking, which is not the case with todays steel bed-pans, and that it is considerably lighter than the usual bed-pan.

' Thanks to the arrangement of the inflatable cushion under the lumbar region of the patient, which cushion lifts the patients hip region when it is inflated and keeps it in that position, the manual lifting of the patient, which is else required every time a bed-pan shall be placed under a patient, is eliminated. This will save the backs of the nursing staff to a very large extent.

The above mentioned bed-pan may also be made collapsible to reduce the space required still more.

I claim:

1. Device for defaecation and urination in throwaway bed-pan characterized by a device to lift and keep a patients hip region in elevated position, a bed-pan made of a disposable or a destructible material, and a urine conducting, preferably absorbing, cushioned diaper secured to said bed-pan, and an inverted plastic bag having a mouth and a bottom secured to the bed-pan and its bottom, wherein the urine conducting cushioned diaper and the inverted plastic bag are so arranged as to cover the patients genitals during defaecation and/or urination, and wherein the plastic bag is arranged for turning inside out over the bed-pan after finishing defaecation and/or urination.

2. Device according to claim 1 in which, the bed-pan is provided with a collar intended to be placed below the patients lumbar region between him and the bedding to position the bed-pan to the patient.

3. Device according to claim 1, in which, the device for lifting and keeping the patients hip region in elevated position, consists of an inflatable cushion.

4. Device according to claim 3, in which, the inflatable cushion is constituted of a central, when inflated essentially cylindrical body, to the two ends of which are fastened two transversal portions, centrally localized relatively to the body.

5. Device according to claim 1, in which a plastic foil slip is secured to the bed-pan in-between the urine conducting diaper and plastic bag.

Claims

1. Device for defaecation and urination in throw-away bed-pan characterized by a device to lift and keep a patient''s hip region in elevated position, a bed-pan made of a disposable or a destructible material, and a urine conducting, preferably absorbing, cushioned diaper secured to said bed-pan, and an inverted plastic bag having a mouth and a bottom secured to the bed-pan and its bottom, wherein the urine conducting cushioned diaper and the inverted plastic bag are so arranged as to cover the patient''s genitals during defaecation and/or urination, and wherein the plastic bag is arranged for turning inside out over the bed-pan after finishing defaecation and/or urination.

2. Device according to claim 1 in which, the bed-pan is provided with a collar intended to be placed below the patient''s lumbar region between him and the bedding to position the bed-pan to the patient.

3. Device according to claim 1, in which, the device for lifting and keeping the patient''s hip region in elevated position, consists of an inflatable cushion.