Conceptual design of a smart hospital bed with real-time vital signs monitoring and patient status surveillance

Abstract

With the advancement of smart technologies in medical equipment, the design of smart hospital beds can play an important role in improving the quality of patient care and reducing the workload of healthcare personnel. This paper presents a conceptual design for a smart hospital bed capable of continuously monitoring patient status. In the proposed design, the bed is intended to acquire the patient’s vital signs, including heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and peripheral blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂), and transmit the information in real time to the central nursing station. The proposed architecture employs a set of sensors suitable for measuring the patient’s physiological parameters. Depending on the parameter being measured, some sensors are integrated into the bed structure, whereas others require direct attachment to the patient’s body to achieve more accurate measurements. A Central Processing Unit (CPU) is also responsible for receiving, managing, and transmitting information to the nursing-monitoring system. Different sensor-placement scenarios and communication methods are examined, and a framework is presented for selecting the most appropriate architecture in terms of performance, usability, and scalability. The proposed design can serve as a basis for developing and implementing a new generation of smart hospital beds that support continuous patient monitoring and improve the quality of healthcare services.