🌩️ Power Failures Are Increasing. How effectively can your care environment support patient safety during power disruptions?
Severe weather is no longer a seasonal inconvenience — it’s a year-round operational risk.
Winter storms create conditions where ice brings down lines, freezing temperatures strain grid capacity, and crews struggle to access damaged infrastructure. Tropical events bring flooding, wind shear, and multi-day grid failures.
When there are power failures — even those unrelated to weather — healthcare teams don’t have the luxury of waiting for utilities to come back online. Care continues, and so must the equipment that protects medically fragile patients. Whether the outage lasts minutes or many hours, the risk to vulnerable patients is immediate:
- ⚠️ Loss of powered therapy surfaces
- 🛏️ Increased risk of shear, pressure, and tissue breakdown
- 🚫⭳ Delayed mobility support
- 🧍♂️❌ Unsafe manual handling when lifts stop functioning
- 😫 Increased staff workload and stress
A care environment without reliable backup ready equipment becomes unsafe quickly. Joerns solves this with a whole room approach to powered and non-powered reliability with our P.R.O. Matt™ Plus, Dolphin® FIS, and our battery‑enabled bed frames and lifts.
🛏️ P.R.O.Matt™ Plus : Reliable Reactive Therapy — Even During Power Loss
P.R.O.Matt™ Plus is designed to deliver therapeutic pressure redistribution without requiring continuous power.
While an optional powered mode is available, the surface does not rely on electricity to provide its core therapeutic function. In the event of a power outage during a storm:
- 🔄 The P.R.O.Matt mattress continues redistributing pressure by reacting to the patient’s weight and body contour—even when unplugged.
- 🛑 There is no deflation, no abrupt increase in firmness, and no loss of therapeutic support.
- 🚑 Patient care is maintained without the need for emergency transfers or backup power solutions.
This means therapy is not interrupted when the grid fails. Caregivers gain critical time, stability, and confidence during severe weather events. This capability is especially valuable in environments where outages may be prolonged, such as during hurricanes or winter storms.
🐬 Dolphin® FIS: Fluid Immersion Therapy with Up to 12 Hours of Battery Backup
The Dolphin Fluid Immersion Simulation® system is uniquely positioned for storm readiness thanks to its built-in rechargeable battery, which:
- 🔋 Provides up to 12 hours of full FIS therapy when fully charged
- 🛡️ Maintains inflation even after battery exhaustion so the patient does not bottom out
- ⏱️ Gives caregivers time to prioritize safety, staffing, and critical operations without losing therapeutic performance
When access to AC power is uncertain, Dolphin helps ensure continuity of care — without requiring manual intervention or patient repositioning that could worsen existing wounds.
🛏️⚙️ Bed Frames: Optional Battery Backup for Safe Positioning During Outages
Joerns bed frames equipped with optional battery backup systems allow caregivers to:
- 🔼 Safely raise/lower the bed
- ↗️ Adjust head and knee sections
- 🛡️ Maintain essential fall prevention positioning
- 👩⚕️ Continue safe patient care during outages that may span multiple shifts
When staffing is limited during a storm and elevators or communication systems may be down, having a bed that still moves is more than convenience — it’s a safety requirement.
🔋 Joerns Lifts: days’ worth of Lifts Per Full Charge
A fully charged Joerns lift battery can typically support 60 to 100 lifts, depending on model and usage. That means:
- 🏥 Facilities remain operational for multiple shifts
- 🧍♀️Safe patient handling continues uninterrupted
- 🚫 Staff do not revert to risky manual lifting during critical weather events
- 🚽 Patient transfers, toileting, and mobility activities remain supported even if power is out for a full day or more
During storms, evacuations, or shelter-in-place situations, lift reliability is essential.
🏥 Joerns Thinks About the Whole Room — Especially When the Weather Turns
In good weather, nearly all equipment works. But healthcare isn’t judged on sunny days— it’s judged during the blizzard, the ice storm, the hurricane, the grid collapse, the moment no one planned for.
Joerns designs for those moments.
- 🛏️ Surfaces that continue therapy without power
- 🔋 Systems with integrated battery backups
- 🧑🦼 Lifts that maintain mobility support for days
- 🛏️ Bed frames that maintain adjustability and patient safety through extended outages
When staff are overwhelmed, and the weather is working against you, worrying about whether critical equipment will function should not be on your list.
Joerns makes sure it isn’t.
Ready to take action?