Stryker Corporation

Jason A Vanderplas

Michael Joseph Hayes

Daniel Vincent Brosnan

Aaron Douglas Furman

Krishna Sandeep Bhimavarapu

Marko N Kostic

Thomas Alan Puvogel

James K Galer

Jonathan David Campbell

Cory Patrick Herbst

Nathan W Matheny

Jeffrey R Staszak

Marco Constant

Trey Thomas Pfeiffer

Janani Gopalkrishnan

Erik P Eagleman

Kelly Sandmeyer

Melvin Gottschalk, Jr

John Wallace

Isaac A Schaberg

Eileen Siew Chin Cheong Youne

Kevin Mark Patmore

Brandon David Naber

Scott Zufall

Scott W Zufall

A patient transport apparatus operable by a user for transporting a patient along stairs. A seat section is coupled to a support structure supporting a track assembly having a belt. A motor selectively generates torque to drive the belt. A user interface is arranged for engagement by the user, and has a direction input control for selecting a drive direction of the motor, and an activation input control for operating the motor to drive the belt. A controller in communication with the motor and the user interface is configured to limit operation of the motor in response to user engagement of the activation input control preceding engagement of the direction input control to prevent driving the belt, and to permit operation of the motor in response to user engagement of the activation input control following engagement of the direction input control to drive the belt in a selected drive direction.

Patient transport apparatus user interface

Patient support apparatuses, such as beds, cots, stretchers, recliners, or the like, include control systems with one or more image, radar, and/or laser sensors to detect objects and determine if a likelihood of collision exists. If so, the control system controls the speed and steering of the patient support apparatus in order to reduce the likelihood of collision. The control system may be adapted to autonomously drive the patient support apparatus, to transmit a message to a remote device indicating whether it is occupied by a patient or not, and/or to transmit its route to the remote device. The remote device may determine an estimate of a time of arrival of the patient support apparatus at a particular destination and/or determine a distance of the patient support apparatus from the particular destination.

Patient support apparatuses with navigation and guidance systems

A person support apparatus, such as a bed, stretcher, recliner, cot, or the like, includes a frame, a plurality of load cells, a support surface supported by the load cells, a detection circuit, and a controller. The controller determines if any of the load cells are in an error state based upon information from the detection circuit. If the load cells include memory having calibration data stored therein, the controller communicates with the memory and uses the calibration data to determine an amount of weight supported on the surface. The detection circuit may include one or more Wheatstone bridges wherein the controller monitors voltages between midpoints of the Wheatstone bridges. The load cells may include an activation lead that is monitored by the detection circuit and a sensor lead that is used by the controller to determine an amount of weight supported on the patient support apparatus.

Person support apparatuses with load cells

Patient care devices, such as person support apparatuses and thermal control units, include multiple internal network nodes. A controller is associated with each node and at least one of the controllers is adapted to process a message received from another node, convert the message from a first communication protocol to a different communication protocol, and forward the message to yet another node using the different communication protocol. One or more of the controllers may also or alternatively reformulate a packet received in a first format from a first node and forward the reformulated packet to another node. One or more controllers may also send messages over a common data link layer wherein some of the messages are formatted according to different message protocols. Some controllers may utilize real time operating systems while others may not.

Patient care devices with on-board network communication

Person support apparatuses with load cells and multiple calibration data

Person support apparatuses with load cell error detection

Growing community of inventors

Kalamazoo, MI, United States of America

Jason A Vanderplas