When you enter the hospital, you get see different types of
hospital furniture. In the lobby, there are chairs kept for the waiting
patients and their relations. There are a number of carriage vehicles such as
wheelchairs and stretchers that one can also find kept close to the gate which
are used for carrying the disabled patients into the hospital. In the OPDs of
doctors, you can easily find the doctor’s examination bed along with the desk
and chairs. Similarly in the patient wards, you can find a number of hospital
beds which are fitted with a number of special features such as reclining top
and bottom parts of the bed and side panels to temporary confine patient to
bed. You can also find attendants chairs and a moveable trolley kept alongside
that is used for keeping he medicines and belongings of patients.
On seeing all of these types of hospital furniture, one can
commonly acknowledge that special attention is paid to ease of movement of
patients and their comfort level while designing these. You will invariably see
almost all of the furniture of use by patients to be of moveable type. Whether
it is the beds, trolleys or wheelchairs, everything is mobile. Even the food
carrying trolley is mobile and designed to carry food to patients room directly
from canteen.
Another common observation is that the furniture of use by
patients is mostly made of metallic materials whether iron or steel or hard
carbon composites. While it is strong, it is also resistant to the action of a
number chemicals or water so that it does not catch rust. Further, the
simplicity in design ensure that these can be cleaned and managed easily on
daily basis. Some of the furniture in use in hospitals is also designed as per
the requirements of patients. This special requirement could relate to their
age factor or nature of their illness. In certain special areas where the
attendants are required to stay, such as in ICU blocks, there are especially
made reclining chairs which can also be turned into beds for sleeping.
Cafeteria will have its own set of special set of furniture for facilitating
preparation of hygienic food.
All in all, hospital furniture is a lot different from the one
we see in homes or elsewhere. It is patient-friendly, doctor-friendly as well
as attendant-friendly.
