US3605128A - Disposable bed pan - Google Patents

Abstract

A SINGLE USE DISPOSABLE BED PAN COMMERCIALLY SUPPLIABLE AS A COMPACT PACKAGE AND COMPRISING A THIN FLEXIBLE SHEET-LIKE BASE MEMBER HAVING A LOWER SURFACE ADAPTED TO BE HORIZONTALLY POSITIONED UPON THE BED LINENS, TOGETHER WITH A FLUID INFLATABLE ANNULAR TUBE SUPERIMPOSED UPON AND ANNULARLY ATTACHED TO THE BASE MEMBER WHEREBY THE INFLATED TUBE CENTRAL OPENING PROVIDES A RECEPTACLE FOR BODY WASTES. THE ENTIRE BED PAN AND COLLECTED WASTES ARE WHOLLY CONVENIENTLY DISPOSABLE IN A SACK-LIKE FORM THROUGH WATER SEWER SYSTEMS, INCINERATION, CHEMICAL TREATMENT TANKS, OR THE LIKE.

Description

Sept. 20, 1971 5005 EI'AL DISPOSABLE BED PAN 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 1, 1970 INVIZNTORS BY ZI )2 L;

MERTO/V E ODE/V 8 JOHN J. FORM/IN ATTORNEY Sept. 20, 1971 EN ETAL 3,605,128

DISPOSABLE BED PAN Filed June 1, 1970 2 Sheets-Sheet 8 MERTON E ODE'N 8 JOHN J. FORM/4N INVIZNTORS Y 5/ if K) (//Wu ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,605,128 DISPOSABLE BED PAN Merton E. Oden, 810 W. 11th St., Wahoo, Nebr. 68066, and John J. Forman, 7723 Lafayette St., Omaha, Nebr.

Filed June 1, 1970, Set. N0. 42,282 Int. Cl. A61g 9/00 US. Cl. 4-113 16 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Bed pans have long been employed at hospitals, nursing homes, and elsewhere, to collect body wastes from bedridden patients. Traditionally, bed pans are of rigid metallic structure, and they must be washed and sterilized after each use, and particularly for each patient. Such metallic pans are rigid and uncomfortable for the patient; too, they are so bulky that interim storage presents a problem. Moreover, washing and sterilization between each use requires the expenditure of costly labor. Accordingly, in view of the cost factor, recent workers in the prior art have attempted to provide labor saving bed pans.

Most labor saving bed pans simply comprise a liner for the traditional metallic bed pan, the object being to collect the body excrements in the liner and to dispose of the liner-encased excrements. However, such liner type structures do not fully protect the underlying metallic pan from accidental spillage of body excrements, and invariably the metallic pan must still be washed and sterilized. Moreover, such prior art liners do not make the traditional bed pan any more comfortable to the patient.

More recently, re-usable inflatable bed pans have been developed, ostensibly for reasons of comfort, but they have proved to be quite cumbersome, and expensive to manufacture, to store, and to hygenically maintain. Apparently economical single use disposable bed pans have been developed, but they have tended to be bulky and can be disposed of only through noxious combustion techniques.

It is accordingly the general objective of the present 7 invention to provide a bed pan that is exceedingly comfortable to use by bed-ridden patients, that is suppliable in a very compact easily stored form, that is of such economical construction that it can be used on a singleuse basis thereby avoiding costly washing and sterilizing costs, that offers unusual neat protection to bed linens, and that can be quickly and economically disposed of through several alternative disposal means including through conventional sewer lines.

With the above and other objects and advantages in view, which will become more apparent as this description proceeds, the disposable bed pan of the present invention comprises a thin flexible sheet material base member having mutually parallel broad surfaces including an upper surface and a lower surface superimposable upon the bed linens, both said surfaces being circumscribed by a peripheral-boundary for the base member, and further 'ice comprises a fluid inflatable annular tube completely surrounding a vertical-axis, the inflatable tube at lower portions thereof being continuously annularly attached to the base member whereby the centrally open portion of the inflated tube together with the underlying annularly attached base member provide a receptacle for body excrements, the base member entire peripheral-boundary being distantly spaced from the inflatable tube to allow the entire peripheral-boundary to be gathered together loftily above the defined receptacle whereby the peripherally loftily gathered base member provides a compact sack-like casing for conveniently disposing of collected body excrements through conventional sewer systems, or by incineration, or the like.

In the drawing, wherein like characters refer to like parts in the several views, and in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a representative embodiment of the disposable bed pan of the present invention, wherein the annular tube portion thereof is uninflated and collapsed upon the extensive base member.

FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the uninflated bed pan embodiment of FIG. 1.

:FIG. 3 is a longitudinally extending right side elevational view of the FIG. 1 embodiment, the left side elevational view being substantially a mirror image thereof.

FIG. 4 is a transversely extending front elevational view of the MG. 1 embodiment, the rear elevational view being substantially a mirror image thereof.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view of an exceedingly compact conveniently pre-packaged form of the FIG. 1 inflatable bed pan.

FIG. 6 is a sectional elevational detail view taken along lines 6-6 of FIGS. 1, 2, and 8.

FIG. 7 is a perspective top view of the FIG. 1 embodiment, after the annular tube portion thereof has been fluid inflated, to provide a receptacle for body excrements.

FIG. 8 is a sectional elevational view take along line 88 of FIG. 7.

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of the FIG. 7 inflated form with the peripheral-boundary of the base member being loftily gathered together to provide a sack-like casing for the inflated tube and the collected body excrements.

FIG. 10 is a perspective view chronologically following FIG. 9, or FIG. 12, with the tube deflated to provide a more compact sack-like casing.

FIG. 11 is a sectional elevational view of. gaseous fluid source which might be optionally employed with the FIG. 1 embodiment.

FIG. 12 is a detail sectional elevational view, similar to FIG. 8, showing an alternately positioned gas withdrawal means.

The representative disposable bed pan A generally comprises a thin flexible sheet material base member 10 (adapted to be horizontally superimposed upon a sleeping bed immediately below a supine patient) together with a fluid inflatable annular tube 20 completely surrounding a vertical axis V and defining a central opening 29 for the uninflated tube 20'. The tubes lower annular surface is continuously annularly attached to base member 10, as by a resinous adherent weld W, whereby the tube inflated form 20A provides a receptacle 29A extending vertically upwardly from those portions of the base member upper surface 13 surrounded by inflated tube 20A. Tube inflation is preferably accomplished after the supine patient has positioned the buttocks within the central opening 29 of uninflated tube 20.

While the sheet material base member might take several geometric shapes, the base member 10* is preferably of rectangular shape and includes a front-edge 15 in substantial parallelism to a rear edge 16, said peripheral edges and 16 each perpendicularly intersecting a horizintal longitudinal-axis 11 for base member 10. There is a pair of mutually parallel longitudinal-edges including a left-edge 17 and a right-edge 18, said peripheral edges 17 and 18 each perpendicularly intersecting a transverse-axis 12 for base member 10. Thus, the four edges 15-18 together provide a peripheral-boundary P for base member 10 that completely surrounds a vertical-axis V (which perpendicularly intersects both horizontal axes 11 and 12). Base member 10 has a pair of broad opposed parallel horizontal surfaces including a rectangular upper surface 13 and a rectangular lower surface 14, the areal extent of both surfaces 13 and 14 being circumscribed by peripheral-boundary P. Preferably, base member 10 comprises a thin flexible resinous sheet material (such as rubber, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polyvinyl alcohol, etc.) having a uniform thickness within the range of about eight to twenty thousandths inch, i.e. mils.

The fluid inflatable annular tube is herein identified as for the collapsed uninflated form thereof and as 20A for the expanded inflated form thereof. The said tube is provided of a flexible uniformly relatively thin resinous material that is impervious to the inflating fluid. For ex ample, when air, oxygen, or other gaseous inflating fluids are employed, resinous materials (such as polyvinylchloride, polyethylene, rubber, polyvinyl alcohol, etc.) having a thickness within a typical range of about eight to twenty mils might be utilized for the annular tube structural material. As is indicated in FIGS. 6-8, the inflated tube 20A contains pressurized fluid whereby the typical crosssection through 20A is of ring-like shape including an annular horizontal bore 24 (as best seen in FIGS. 8 and 12). However, as indicated in FIGS. 1-6, the uninflated atmospheric-pressure form of tube 20 is downwardly collapsed against base member 10. As best seen in FIG. 6, the collapsed annulus comprises in vertical cross-section two horizontal layers including an upper layer 21 superimposed upon and broadly contacting the lower layer 22, said lower layer 22 being superimposed directly upon the base member upper surface 13.

Lower portions of the annular inflatable tube are continuously annularly attached to the base member 10, said attachment means completely surrounding vertical axis V and being impervious to liquid and solid body excrements collectable into receptacle 29A. Preferably, the annular attachment means comprises a resinous weld W, such as a heat-sealing weld, or separate adhesive, between the lower annular surface of tube 20 and the base member at the upper surface 13 thereof; in this vein, chemical similarity between the resinous structural materials for tube 20 and base member 10 is desirable.

In plan view, as seen in FIGS. 1, 2, and 7, the annular tube is desirably of elliptical shape (having its major axis along longitudinal-axis 11 and having its minor axis along transverse-axis 12) whereby there is a front portion 25, a rear portion 26, a leftward lateral side 27, and a rightward lateral side 28. Tube 20 is dimensionally constructed in vertical cross-section so that in the inflated form 20A thereof the diameter of bore 24 gradually in creases toward tube rearward portion 26, as seen in FIG. 8. Tube 20 in vertical cross-section contour might include a rearwardly extending flap portion 25A to act as a deflector for male urinal discharges.

Annular tube '20 includes at least one hose, e.g. 40, attached to tube 20 (as by retainer washer 41) and extending into tube bore 24 to permit fluid inflation. Hose might be internally valved whereby sources of compressed air from a mechanical air compressor might be introduced into tube bore 24. Oftentimes, however, especially at smaller nursing homes and at private dwelling homes, mechanically compressed air sources are unavailable, and in such situations a finite packaged source of high-pressure gas might be integrally attached to the inflatable tube. For example, as indicated in FIG. ll. a packaged gas source might include a hollow flexible housing 51 having a pair of internal chambers 52 and 53 separated by a frangible disc barrier 54. The respective chambers contain chemicals which, when permitted to react, provide the inflating fluid for tube 20. For example, chamber 52 might contain sodium peroxide (Na O while chamber 53 might contain water (H O). There is a relatively easily rupturable wall 55 disposed between chamber 53 and the outward end of hose 40, hose 40 being attached to housing 50, as by mechanical threads or even by some permanent resinous or welded connection. Thus, the patients buttocks having been positioned into tubular opening 29, the attendant might manually squeeze flexible housing 51 to rupture barrier 54 whereby the chemicals react to provide a vigorous source of oxygen gas which ruptures wall 55 and surges through hose 40 into tube bore 24 to provide the inflated form 20A including receptacle 29A. Alternately to chemical reaction type gas sources, housing 51 might have a single compartment of highly compressed air, in which case wall 55 would be of the manually rupturable type similar to 54.

With the use of the aforesaid thin flexible base member '10 and the annular inflatable tube 20, especially with the flatly collapsible tube indicated in FIGS. 1-4 and 6, the bed pan A can be marketed in exceedingly compact multilayer forms. For example, as indicated in FIG. 5, the entire bed pan A can be folded in convolute fashion commencing at a lineal edge, e.g. 16, of the base member peripheral-boundary whereby a rectangular bar-like form 20Y results. Alternately, the device A might be convolutely rolled to provide a cylindrical bar-like form (not shown). The easily storable compact convolute original package, e.g. 20Y, might also include therein an integrally connected gas source, e.g. 50, and might be maintained in convolute form with a removable girth strap such as elastic-band 39. In the typical case where ten mil thick resinous sheet material is employed both for base member 10 and for inflatable tube 20 (about fifty inches circumference for annular weld W), the entire package 20Y would occupy on the order of about twenty cubic inches.

The entire peripheral-boundary P, i.e. 15-18, of base member 10 is spaced a generous finite-distance from the inflatable tube 20 such that the circumference P is at least double the circumference of tube 20. There are two reasons for the relatively great areal extent for base member 10. First, the base member 10 extending generously outwardly from tube 20 provides a means for protecting bed linens from accidentally misdirected body excrements. Secondly, after the patient has evacuated into receptacle 29A, the entire peripheral-boundary P can be gathered together loftily above the collected excrements to provide the sack-like casing form of FIG. 9 (secured as by elastic-band 39) for disposal of the said encased body excrements. For example, the FIG. 9 form can be disposed through incineration or through an appropriate sewer system.

The FIG. 9 sack-like form is relatively voluminous because of the presence of inflated tube 20A. However, deflation of tube 20A after the body excrements have been collected into receptacle 29A provides the more compact sack-like form of FIG. 10. Accordingly, there are means to allow fluid to be slowly controllably withdrawn from the inflated tube bore 24 without allowing body excrements to escape from the receptacle 29A. Cleanliness is ensured when fluid is withdrawn from tube bore 24 after the sack-like form of FIG. 9 has been attained. In this vein, the attendant might insert a sharp pin 36 upwardly through base member 10 into tube bore 24 (as indicated by arrow in FIG. 9). So as to ensure against puncturing pin 36 into receptable 29A, base member lower surface 14 might have a visual mark, e.g. X-mark 35, in vertical registry with tube bore 24 and with tube-base weld W. Alternately, and more reliably, there is a hole, e.g. 32-33, through the tube 20 temporarily sealed, e.g. by tab 30. For example, there is a iverticalperforation 32 33 extending downwardly from tube bore 24 through the tube bottom portion at 33, through the weld W, and through the base member at 32. Verticalpeiforation 32-33 is temporarily sealed with a tab-like sealer 30 having an adhesive layer 31 firmly removably attached to base member lower surface 14. Thus, as indicated in phantom line in FIG. 9, the attendant can manually remove to sealer 30 whereupon the annular tube becomes deflated, resulting in the more compact sack-like form of FIG. having vertical-axis V(A). As indicated in FIG. 12, the tube hole as 34 might be well above base 10. If hole 34 be of small diameter, the compact sack form of FIG. 10 might be attained without the spillage of collected excrements, and thus by-passing the FIG. 9 form. With the FIG. 12 alternate embodiment, a smaller circumference for peripheral-boundary P will suflice and more compact multi-layer packages, e.g. FIG. 5, can be attained.

Hygroscopic resinous substances are preferred for the structural materials of bed pan A, whereby the entire sack-like structure of FIG. 9 or 10 might be disposed of in a conventional water sewer system. Among hygroscopic resinous materials are those plasticized with glycerine and similar polar substances. Polyvinyl alcohol and methyl cellulose structural materials are highly hygroscopic and are water soluble, and can be sewer disposed without the use of ancillary shredding apparatus in the sewer line.

Operational steps for the disposable bed pan A, which have already been alluded to, can be summarized as follows. First, the pre-packaged form Y of FIG. 5 is unfolded to the FIG. 1 horizontal form. Next, the base member lower surface 14 is superimposed upon the bed linens by the attendant. Then, the patient is positioned so that his rectal region is disposed within that central area 29 encircled by uninflated tube 20. Next, the tube is fluid inflated to condition 20A (as by integrally attached unit 50) whereupon the patients rectal region is located within upright receptacle 29A and his lower back is slightly raised above base member upper surface 13 by tube portion 26. After the patients body wastes have been collected in receptacle 29A, the attendant gathers the entire peripheral-boundary P, e.g. 15-1 8,

loftily above receptacle 29A to provide the sack-like form of FIG. 9. Finally, the entire sack-like form of FIG. 9, or the more compact deflated form of FIG. 10, is disposed of through incineration, in an appropriate hydrous sewer system, or in a chemical treatment tank.

From the foregoing, the construction and operation of the disposable bed pan will be readily understood and further explanation is believed to be unnecessary. However, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the appended claims.

We claim:

1. A disposable bed pan comprising:

(A) A substantially horizontal base member comprising a relatively thin flexible sheet material having a pair of broad opposed parallel horizontal surfaces including an upper surface and a lower surface, the areal extent of each of said opposed surfaces being circumscribed by a peripheral-boundary for the base member;

(B) A substantially horizontally extending fluid inflatable annular tube completely surrounding a vertical axis, said inflatable annular tube at annular lower portions thereof being continuously attached to the base member whereby the central 'vertical opening of the inflated tube extending integrally upwardly from the horizontal base member provides a receptacle for body excrements, the peripheral-boundary of the base member completely surrounding the attached tubular annulus and being continuously separated outwardly therefrom by an extensive finitedistance suflicient to allow the peripheral-boundary of the flexible base member to be gathered together above the receptacle defined by said inflated annular tube, whereby the said loftily gathered base member provides a sack-like casing for disposing of the collected body excrements.

2. The disposable bed pan of claim 1 wherein the inflatable tube at the annular lower surface thereof is continuously annularly adherently attached to the base member at the upper surface thereof; and wherein the structural material of the tubular annulus is sufiiciently uni formly thin and flexible that in the uninflated atmosphericpressure form thereof the collapsed annulus comprises two horizontal layers including an upper layer superimposed upon and physically contacting a lower layer, said horizontal lower layer being superimposed directly upon the upper broad surface of the base member.

3. The disposable bed pan of claim 2 wherein the base member sheet material has a thickness within the range of about eight to twenty mils; and wherein the peripheralboundary of said base member is of rectangular shape including a front-edge disposed in substantial parallelism to a rear-edge and including a pair of substantially parallel longitudinal-edges whereby said rectangular base member in the horizontal form has a pair of mutually perpendicular horizontal axes including a longitudinal-axis located between and parallel to the respective longitudinal-edges and including a transverse-axis located between and parallel to the rear-edge and front-edge.

4. The disposable bed pan of claim 3 wherein both the annular tube and the attached base member are provided in a compact multi-layer packaged form.

5. The disposable bed pan of claim 4 wherein the compact multi-layer package is of convolute form which is maintained by an elastic-band securely removably surrounding the convolute form and in a plane normal to the convolutions, said elastic-band being thereafter employable to maintain the gathered condition of the peripheral-boundary preparatory to disposal of the body excrements contained in the vertical opening of the in fiated tubular annulus.

6. The disposable bed pan of claim 5 wherein the annular tube is gas inflatable; and wherein there are means to allow the gas to be controllably slowly withdrawn from the inflated annular tube.

7. The disposable bed pan of claim 6 wherein the base member lower surface includes a visual-mark in vertical registry with the annular bore of the inflatable tube and with a resinous adherent annular weld between the base member and the inflatable tube whereby a sharp pin making a vertical puncture through the visual-mark will allow gas to be slowly withdrawn from the inflated tube without allowing body excrements to escape from the sack-like casing; and wherein a sharp pin is removably attached to the elastic-band portion of the original package.

8. The disposable bed pan of claim 7 wherein the gasinflatable annular tube includes an outwardly extending hose stem together with a packaged source of high pressure gas integrally attached to the hose.

9. The disposable bed pan of claim 1 wherein the gasinflatable annular tube includes an outwardly extending hose together with a packaged source of high pressure gas integrally attached to the hose, said packaged gas source comprising two chambers separated by a frangible or breakable wall, there being water in one chamber and Na O in the other chamber whereby chemical reaction therebetween generates oxygen gas to inflate the tube.

10. The disposable bed pan of claim 1 wherein the resinous structural material of the base member and of the annular tube is a hygroscopic resinous plastic material.

11. The disposable bed pan of claim 10 wherein the resinous structural material is plasticized with a water soluble plasticizer.

12. The disposable bed pan of claim 11 wherein the resinous material comprises polyvinylalcohol.

13'. The disposable bed pan of claim 1 wherein there are means to allow gas to be controllably slowly withdrawn from the inflated tube without allowing body excrements to escape from the receptacle; and wherein both the annular tube and the base member are provided in a compact multi-year convolute packaged form.

14. The disposable bed pan of claim 13 wherein the gas withdrawal means comprises a hole in the tube wall, said hole being temporarily sealed with a removable tablike sealer.

15. The disposable bed pan of claim 14 wherein the gas withdrawal means comprises a vertical-perforation extending downwardly from the inflatable tube annular bore through the base member including through a resinous weld at the base member, said vertical-perforation being temporarily sealed with a tab-like sealer operable from the base member lower surface.

16. The disposable bed pan of claim 1 wherein the base member has a rectangular peripheral-boundary ineluding a front-edge parallel to a rear-edge and a pair References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,750,600 6/1956 MacDonald 4-113 3,061,840 11/1962 Presseisen 4l13 3,418,663 12/1968 Scott 4-113 3,513,488 5/1970 Oring et al 4-112 3,546,717 12/1970 Kuhn 41l3 2O HENRY K. ARTIS, Primary Examiner

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