Cover assembly for mattresses of the type used in medical facilities

Abstract

A cover assembly designed and structured to protectively enclose a mattress of the type used in medical facilities such as on hospital beds, stretchers, gurneys, etc. A casing is formed from a flexible, high strength, water impermeable material which is resistant to rupture or abrasion and which has characteristics which facilitates its use in the environment of a hospital or other medical facility. The casing includes a reinforcement assembly in the form of one or more flexible material panels, which may be formed from a material similar or identical to that from which the casing is formed and which are attached to different elongated outer walls of the casing so as to extend over a mid-portion thereof and be aligned substantially with a mid-portion of a body supported on the mattress, thereby providing supplementary support to the body so as to resist the mid-portion of the body sinking excessively into the mattress. The underlying, supported position of the one or more reinforcement panels therefore significantly reduces the tendency of the patient to develop back pain from prolonged bed rest.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.