Patent ID: 8528135

Claim:
A pressure sore relief system for a hospital bed comprising: a plurality of pressure sensors adjacent a top surface of said hospital bed, wherein each said pressure sensor operates independently of one another for detecting changes in pressure forces applied to a particular region of said top surface of said bed and generating a feedback signal that corresponds to said detected changes in pressure forces applied to said top surface of said bed; a system controller adapted to receive said feedback signals from said pressure sensors and generate a plurality of output signals in response to each of said feedback signals; and a plurality of actuators in communication with said top surface of said hospital bed and being adapted to receive said output signals from said system controller, wherein each said output signal generated by said system controller is associated with one of said actuators; wherein said system controller has an initial set-up phase when a patient is positioned atop said top surface of said bed so that a baseline, pressure threshold value is established for each of said pressure sensors for the patient, a first phase of operation during which said system controller receives said feedback signals for detecting whether the baseline, pressure threshold value for the patient has been exceeded for any of said sensors within one or more of regions of said top surface of said bed, and a second phase of operation during which said system controller transmits said output signals to said actuators within the one or more regions for vibrating said top surface of said bed within the one or more regions.