Configurable system for alerting caregivers

A system comprising

• a hospital bed which has circuitry that monitors a plurality of bed parameters, and
• at least one computer device spaced from the hospital bed and operable by users to designate alarm thresholds for a subset of the plurality of bed parameters, the at least one computer device communicating to the hospital bed the types of bed parameters of the subset for which alarm thresholds have been designated, the hospital bed operating to communicate to the at least one computer device data associated with the subset, the hospital bed refraining from communicating to the at least one computer device data associated with other bed parameters not in the subset.

A system comprising

• a hospital bed which has circuitry that monitors a plurality of bed parameters, and
• at least one computer device spaced from the hospital bed and operable by users to designate alarm thresholds for a subset of the plurality of bed parameters, the at least one computer device communicating to the hospital bed at least some of the alarm thresholds, the hospital bed operating to monitor the subset of bed parameters and to communicate to the at least one computer device an alarm signal indicating that an alarm condition has been detected based on a comparison of at least one of the alarm thresholds to the associated bed parameter.

A network interface unit coupleable to bed communications circuitry of a hospital bed and configured to communicate data via a data link to a hospital Ethernet, the network interface unit being configured to convert data received from the hospital bed in a format according to a first protocol into a format according to an Ethernet protocol.

A hospital bed comprising

• bed control circuitry for controlling a plurality functions of the bed and for monitoring at least some of the plurality of functions, and
• network interface circuitry coupled to the bed control circuitry, the network interface circuitry having a wireless communication portion that is coupleable to a hospital Ethernet via a wireless data link, the network interface circuitry having a wired communication portion that is coupleable to the hospital Ethernet via a wired data link.

A system comprising

• at least one computer device coupled to a hospital Ethernet, the hospital Ethernet having at least one wired access point and at least on wireless access point,
• a hospital bed having associated therewith bed identification (ID) data,
• a network interface unit (NIU) coupled to the hospital bed via a first data link, the NIU having associated therewith NIU ID data, the NIU having a communications port that is coupleable to the Ethernet via a second data link, the NIU being configured to sense whether the communications port is coupled to the Ethernet via the second data link, wherein if the NIU is coupled to the Ethernet via the second data link then the bed ID data received by the NIU is transmitted by the NIU along with NIU ID data to the Ethernet over the second data link, wherein if the NIU is not coupled to the Ethernet via the second data link then the NIU ID data received by the hospital bed is transmitted wirelessly by the hospital bed to one of the wireless access points of the Ethernet along with the bed ID data.