COMBINED BEDSIDE CABINET
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to collective cabinets. More particularly, the present invention relates to a combined patient bedside cabinet.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Patients in hospitals spend significant time in their beds or near them whether their stay in the hospital is a short stay or a relatively long one. During that period, the whole life of the patient evolves in the vicinity of his bed. The patient's personal belongings are kept in a bedside cabinet on which he should also eat , write, read, work on a laptop or perform any other kind of activity if he is confined to his bed or if he so whishes. Usually, there is an enormous difficulty in maintaining the patient privacy in the hospital. Moreover, the bedside cabinet, in which the patient keeps his belongings, is a non-effective cabinet that usually can be open by any person. Comfort accessories such as refrigerator, cellular phone devices, microwave or a heater as well as enjoyment accessories such as T.V., DVD, radio, laptops etc. have to be kept on the same relatively small and non-personal bedside cabinet. Moreover, electricity supply or communication is not readily available to the patient. Since people in hospitals partially lose their privacy in several fields, there is a need to allow privacy of their belongings by providing an effective bedside cabinet. Hospitalized people should have the ability to perform daily comfort and enjoyment activities such as reading, listening to music, work on a laptop etc. It is a long felt need to provide a patient bedside cabinet that is personal in the sense that it is provided with a secured space that can be easily locked
by the patient. Moreover, it is a need to allow the patient to have enjoinment facilities that will be in his vicinity and the reasonable place to provide those facilities is in his bedside cabinet. The combined patient bedside cabinet as disclosed in the present invention allows the patient to have his privacy, comfort, and amusement during his stay in hospital.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a combined patient bedside cabinet that allows privacy in the vicinity of the patient as well as enjoyment facility. It is another object of the present invention to provide a combined patient bedside cabinet that provides storage compartment, secured compartment; comfortable tray and electricity and communication abilities in the vicinity of the patient. It is provided in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention a combined patient bedside cabinet comprising: at least one storage compartment; at least one secured locker adapted to be open by an opening means; a tray adapted to be connected to a shaft adapted to extend beyond a height of the combined patient bedside cabinet. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the cabinet further comprises at least one electrical device adapted to be connected to at least one socket of electrical supply that is provided to the combined patient bedside cabinet. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical device is a mini-cooler. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical device is a mini-cooler having a heating option.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical devices is selected from a group of amusement devices such as TV, DVD, CD player, or radio. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said adjustable tray is adapted to support a laptop and wherein a communication connection is provided on the cabinet. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said key is a combination key and said opening means is a predetermined combination of numbers or letters. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said opening means is selected of a group consisting locks such as of biometric locks or proximity cards or tags. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said tray is an adjustable tray wherein the height of said adjustable tray on said shaft can be adjusted. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said tray is an adjustable tray wherein the angle of said adjustable tray in respect with a vertical axis is adapted to be changed. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the patient bedside cabinet is modular. It is further provided in accordance with yet another preferred embodiment of the present invention, a patient bedside cabinet comprising: at least one storage compartment; at least one electrical device adapted to be connected to at least one socket of electrical supply that is provided on the patient bedside cabinet; a tray adapted to be connected to a shaft extending beyond a height of the patient bedside cabinet. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical device is a mini- cooler.
Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical device is a mini- cooler/heater. Furthermore, in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention, said at least one electrical devices is selected from a group of amusement devices such as TV, DVD, CD player, radio.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
In order to better understand the present invention and appreciate its practical applications, the following Figures are attached and referenced herein. Like components are denoted by like reference numerals. It should be noted that the figures are given as examples and preferred embodiments only and in no way limit the scope of the present invention as defined in the appending Description and Claims.
Figure 1 illustrates a frontal view of a combined patient bedside cabinet in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 2 illustrates an isometric view of a combined patient bedside cabinet in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Figure 3 illustrates an isometric view of the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 2, with a deployed tray.
Figure 4 illustrates the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 1 , showing the interior of a secured locker.
Figure 5 illustrates a back view of the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 1.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a new and unique combined patient bedside cabinet that allows privacy to the patient as well as comfort and enjoyment center in his vicinity. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the combined patient cabinet is provided with a secured compartment having a lock. The lock is preferably provided with a lock that can be open using a password and can be changed so that any patient that receives the cabinet can change the password in his privacy. It should be mentioned that the lock can be open in any other way without limiting the scope of the present invention such as biometric locks or proximity lock. The combined patient bedside cabinet of the present invention is further incorporated with comfort and/or amusement devices such as refrigerator, DVD player, TV set, or chargers of cellular devices. The bedside cabinet of the present invention is adapte to allow the patient to read, work on a laptop, or perform any other kind of activity in a most convenient manner. Since bedside cabinets are in the vicinity of the patient, they are provided with electricity or communication facilities that allow the patient to comfortably connect personal devices such as players or computer in his vicinity. Reference is made to Figure 1 illustrating a frontal view of a combined patient bedside cabinet in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the present invention. Cabinet 10 comprises a main body 12 and a unique swiveling adjustable tray 14 mounted on a shaft. Main body 12 is divided into several compartments wherein the organization of the compartments as shown in Figure 1 is solely for demonstration purposes and any other organization and positioning of the compartments is covered by the scope of the present invention. Tray 14 can be installed with a mirror on one of its sides
so as to allow the patient, especially the ones that are confined to their beds, to use a mirror in a proximity without having to get out of the bed. Main body 12 comprises a storage compartment 18 that may be in the form of a drawer such as shown in Figure 1; however, it can be a main compartment that can be either closed by a door or an open compartment into which items or dry food can be stored. Main body 12 is further provided with a private secured locker 20 wherein the secured locker is provided with a lock
22 that is preferably a combination lock. The user can choose a combination of numbers and store the numbers so that secured locker 20 will be open only by using the specific chosen numbers. It should be emphasized that any other lock such as barcode lock, regular lock, or any other lock that enables only a certain individual using a specific key to open the secured compartment can be used and the use of a combination lock does not limit the scope of the present invention. It should be also mentioned that a master lock may be provided to an organizing company that maintains the cabinets so that in case the user forgets his numbers in the combination or any other problem occurs, the master lock opens the secured locker. Optionally, each lock is provided with a barcode that can communicate with a controller that is owned by the organizing company so that the organizing company can control each cabinet positioning and state. Optionally, bedside cabinet 10 is provided with a towel rack 34. Other compartments can be added also to the combined patient bedside cabinet such as the shown compartment 21. Main body 12 is provided with wheels 13 so as to enable transportation of the cabinet, especially if the patient is moved to another department in the hospital. Reference is now made to Figure 2 illustrating an isometric view of a combined patient bedside cabinet in accordance with another preferred embodiment of the present invention. Combined patient bedside cabinet 100 is basically similar to cabinet 10. It has a main body 12 provided with a secured locker 20 having a lock 22, an adjustable tray 14 and an additional open compartment 36.
Reference is now made to Figure 3 illustrating an isometric view of the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 2, with a deployed tray. Tray 14 can be moved upwardly and downwardly on shaft 16 and can be rotated to any desired angle about latch 38. In this way, the patient can tilt the tray to his desire positioning and read when the book or the newspaper is on the tray. Shaft 16 is designed so that it extends beyond the height of body 12 as shown in the figure. The patient can also maintain the tray in a lower position. Reference I snow made to Figure 4 illustrating the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 1, showing the interior of a secured locker. Main body 12 is further provided with a mini-cooler (mini refrigeretor /heater) 24. In this case, mini-cooler 24 is within secured compartment 20, however, it can stand alone in the body of the cabinet. It is an option to provide main body with a mini-cooler that is adapted to heat up by changing the mode of the cooler. Such mini-coolers and mini-coolers that are adapted to be heated are available. As mentioned herein before, the combined cabinet is adapted to be provided as patient bedside cabinet and since patients can be retained in the hospital for relatively long periods of time, they need a means of preserving their own private food in private cooler, as well as cool drinks. Today, there is no available means to allow the patient to keep his own food in appropriate conditions and patients don't find any solution to the problem. The bedside cabinet of the present invention provides a means for private food preservation. This feature is mostly important for people that can not eat, from some reason, the food that is provided by the hospital. For example, Jewish religious people that eat only kosher food or any other people for any reason, don't have any solution for preserving the foods, therefore, they throw away the food that hadn't been immediately consumed. The cooler that could be switched into a heater by meanes of a push button can be used for heating foods that are preserved in cool conditions or brought to the patient. Optionally or additionally, the cabinet can be provided also with a toaster or a microwave oven.
The addition of electricity consuming device such as the cooler to bedside cabinet 10 brought about the incorporation of electricity supply to the cabinet. One of the novelties of the present invention is incorporation of electricity supply into the cabinet so that the cabinet can be used as a mobile and accessible electricity source supply. Reference is now made to Figure 5 illustrating a back view of the combined patient bedside cabinet shown in Figure 1. Electricity sockets 26 can be incorporated within body 12 so that the user can connect other electricity consuming devices such as electrical shaving machine, PC communication, laptop, battery chargers for mobile devices such as phones etc., and also, the nurses that in many consequences use electricity consuming devices when treating the patient can use the electricity sockets 26 that are much more accessible and are provided on the bedside cabinet rather than the sockets that are available on the walls between the beds of the patients. This affords the patient and the medical team with more privacy. The electricity connection can be also incorporated in the bedside cabinet in other manners such as a cabinet that is solely hosting an electrical cord extension having sockets that are adhered onto the cabinet in a desired and comfortable location. Since main body 12 is provided with electricity supply, it can be provided also with other electrical devices such as TV screen, DVD, CD player, radio, computer, etc. so as to make the time spent by the patient in the vicinity of a hospital bed, which can be a very frustrating but inevitable time, to a relatively enjoyable and pleasing time. The electrical appliances are preferably located in secured locker 20 along with the cooler. It is optional that the electrical devices that are designed to be dedicated to the patient bedside cabinet as disclosed in the present invention will be provided with electrical connectors adapted to connect to electricity supply in a male-female manner. In this embodiment, which has a modularity feature, the cabinet's body is provided with electrical connections that correspond the connection provided in the devices. Using such embodiment enables the patient to choose the devices he wishes to incorporate in the cabinet and the
provider can construct on an immediate basis the type of cabinet the user needs. Optionally, communication supply can be incorporated within the combined patient bedside cabinet similarly to the electricity supply. In this way, the patient can be connected to a communication network such as an Internet and use the feature for his amusement or his work. Intranet abilities can be also incorporated so as to allow the patient to communicate with each other as well as their families or the medical staff. Optionally, a night lamp can be incorporated within the cabinet. It should be mentioned that the devices and compartments incorporated in the patient bedside cabinet can be secured to the body of the cabinet in any way without limiting the scope of the present invention. It should be clear that the description of the embodiments and attached Figures set forth in this specification serves only for a better understanding of the invention, without limiting its scope as covered by the following Claims. It should also be clear that a person skilled in the art, after reading the present specification can make adjustments or amendments to the attached Figures and above described embodiments that would still be covered by the following Claims.