Patient care devices with on-board network communication

A person support apparatus comprising:

• a support surface adapted to support a person;
• a node adapted to perform a function associated with the person support apparatus;
• a first communication medium coupled to the node;
• a second communication medium coupled to the node;
• and
• a controller associated with the node and adapted to reformulate a packet received in a first format via the first communication medium into a second format, the controller further adapted to forward the reformulated packet over the second communication medium, wherein the packet includes a header and a payload, the reformulated packet includes a reformulated header and a reformulated payload, the reformulated header includes at least some data from the payload of the packet, and the reformulated payload includes at least some data from the header of the packet.

A person support apparatus comprising:

• a support surface adapted to support a person;
• a first node adapted to perform a first function associated with the person support apparatus;
• a second node adapted to perform a second function associated with the person support apparatus
• a communication medium coupled between the first node and the second node;
• and
• a controller associated with the first node, the controller adapted to send a first message and a second message over the communication medium to the second node using a first data link layer protocol, wherein the first message is defined according to a first message protocol and the second message is defined according to a second message protocol, wherein the first data link layer protocol defines a packet structure having a header and a payload, and the controller is adapted to insert the entire first message into the payload of a first packet and to insert only a portion of the second message into the payload of a second packet.