If you’ve ever spent time in hospital, a clinic, a trauma center, or in triage, you’ve probably seen or actually spent time on a portable hospital bed. While they are great for providing the space and accessibility the hospital staff needs to care for patients, hospital beds are far from comfortable.

Luckily there are manufacturers that are aiming to totally redesign the hospital bed and the mattress to provide all the accessibility, portability, and ease of use the staff needs, while still providing the comfort the patient needs in order to get the rest they need to heal.

The name ‘hospital bed’ is a label used for beds in many medical facilities, but not all of these are hospitals.

You’ll find hospital beds and mattresses are used in retirement facilities, hospices, surgical centers, physical therapy facilities, dental facilities, mental care facilities, walk-in clinics, field triage units, and even in veterinarian clinics (animals need a place to rest as well).

These kinds of beds are best suited for each facility because they are fitted with wheels for portability, many of the beds come apart in the middle to allow for birthing, emergency care, or patient transport (helping the patient move from one bed to the other), and some are fitted with special restrains for use in psychiatric facilities and prisons.

Hospitals beds get a bad rap for being so flat, hard, and uncomfortable, but they are very useful. In the near future, you may find that mattress manufacturers have finally invented the perfect blind of “hospital” and “home” in the mattresses they supply to medical facilities.