Mattress evaluation for long-term care facilities.

Patients spend more than a third of their hospital time in bed and considerably more than that if they are residents in a long-term care facility. When our facility, Fair Acres Geriatric Center, a 911-bed long-term care facility in Lima, PA, noticed increasing losses of our standard mattresses, we decided to evaluate new products. We listed very important criteria (bacteria resistance, flame retardation, self-deodorization and comfort and resiliency) and important criteria (stain resistance, cost and warranty) and then brought in three standard mattresses for our staff to evaluate. We were able to procure a mattress that met our criteria and halved our costs in the process.