Drive Medical Hospital Bed Buying Guide

By Maurice

Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare was formed in January 2000 as the Medical Depot, Inc. Shortly after its founding, the company changed its name to more closely align with the vibrant spirit found among its workers and reflect the quality of life Drive provides to those who use its products.

Growing rapidly, Drive became a multi-national organization and has continued to grow and prosper, offering state-of-the-art technology to its users. In 2015, Drive acquired DeVilbiss Healthcare and became Drive Devilbiss Healthcare. As a leading supplier of healthcare equipment and materials, Drive’s mission is to lead the world with innovative healthcare that enhances the lives of its users.

What Does Drive Medical Offer?

Drive offers a complete line of durable medical equipment (DME), including mobility devices, respiratory and CPAP equipment, power wheelchairs and scooters, rehab equipment, personal care products, and hospital beds, including high-low beds, home hospital beds, and bariatric beds for larger individuals.

Who Are Drive’s Clients?

Drive’s customer base includes home healthcare providers, healthcare products and equipment distributors, and e-tailers. They have recently added divisions specializing in long-term care and acute care while continuing to grow their national direct sales of in-home health care.

Where Can You Buy Drive Medical Products?

Drive itself sells its products online on Drive’s Homepage. Other online retailers include Med Mart, American Quality Health Products, Rehabmart.com, Sonder Car, Walmart, and Amazon. Brick and mortar sales locations include Walgreens, Walmart, and various medical supply houses.

What Kinds of Beds Does Drive Offer?

Drive offers Homecare hospital beds, bariatric beds, and long-term care beds. It also provides bedding peripherals, including rails, mattresses, and bed accessories. It also accepts returns of beds in their original condition within 30 days of purchase.

Drive Home Hospital Beds

Drive has recently created a new line of full-electric beds, the Delta Pro bed system. The Delta system generally consists of ultra-light beds, including full and semi-electric low level and standard level beds. In addition to Delta, Drive has other lines, including fully manual beds and adjustable and low-height beds.

The Delta beds line runs from just under $700 to nearly $1,500. These prices are only for the beds themselves and do not include mattresses which must be purchased separately.

The Delta beds are unique because they are all ultra-light, regardless of what features they offer. And they do offer features. The relatively inexpensive Prime Plus Bed Model P2002 at around $900, for example, provides a completely self-contained motor and a reversible high-low drive shaft. The engine is accompanied by a 9V battery which allows some functions in the event of a power failure. Channel frame construction provides outstanding strength accompanied by the ultra-light weight that defines the Delta line. Drive also offers this bed with half-rails and a therapeutic support mattress at the cost of approximately $1,400. Drive also offers a similar semi-electric model, which with rails and a therapeutic support mattress, costs $1,231 and just under $1,100 for a foam mattress package.

Tuck designated the Drive Delta Ultra Light Full Electric Bed best in class for 2022, finding it reliable and affordable while ticking many desirable boxes. This full-electric bed has a user-friendly wired remote and offers a backup 9-volt battery in case of power failures.

The headboard and footboard are interchangeable, while the whole thing can be folded up and stored when it isn’t needed. The bed will carry 450 pounds, making it suitable for most individuals. Long and short rails are available. Drive offers an innerspring, foam, or therapeutic support mattress. These extras take the price up somewhat, but the bed remains doable for those on a budget.

Fully assembled, the bed is 88 inches long but can be shortened to 84 or 80 inches. The frame has a lifetime warranty, while the remote is warranted for five years. It’s not surprising that Tuck was pleased with this bed.

The Delta line also includes the Pro Home Care line of beds. This line offers standard semi and full electric beds, low semi and full electric beds, and standard and low linear full and semi-electric beds. This line offers a universal frame that can be fitted to one of six different configurations. It can be low or standard, and fully or semi-electric. This ultimate flexibility allows the customer to get exactly what is desired while the dealer can limit on-hand inventory.

Tuck also singled out the Delta Ultra Light 1000 Full Electric Low Bed for praise, ranking it best in its class. According to Tuck, the Delta Ultra Light 1000 is a standout low bed thanks to its outstanding craftsmanship and broad functionality. Just 9.5 inches off the floor, the bed features a built-in remote, a backup 9-volt battery to deal with power failures, and a very quiet UL-approved motor.

Living up to its name, the bed is light and easy to move. Available extras include half or full rails and an innerspring or therapeutic matters. All of this is reasonably priced and supports a weight of 450 pounds. As is true with most Delta line beds, the frame has a lifetime warranty and the remote for five years.

Drive Bariatric Beds

Among its other beds, Drive offers a full electric bariatric bed. With quiet operations developed for the patient, the bariatric bed has a heavy-duty frame that offers comfort and safety for every patient. Holding up to 1000 pounds and easy to install and use, the bariatric bed offers dynamic hand controls making changing position simple. The bariatric bed is a complete product combined with a low air loss alternating pressure mattress.

The Drive Medical full electric bariatric hospital bed was voted first in class by Tuck for 2022. For those who need a fully-electric bed for a larger patient, the Drive Medical Bariatric Hospital Bed can be a great choice. Its heavy-duty steel construction and relatively wide sleep surface of 42 inches let this hospital bed comfortably support patients weighing up to 600 pounds.

The Bariatric Bed comes with a mattress and one set of rails. You can purchase an additional set from the manufacturer. The bed is easily assembled without the need for any tools. It also includes a remote and an emergency manual crank.

Consumer Affairs also highlighted this bed for 2022 and noted its fairly reasonable $2,800 price tag.

Drive’s bariatric beds tend to be among their most expensive. The Prime Plus Bed Model P2002 bariatric bed, for example, sells for around $7,400.

Drive Long-Term Care Beds

Long-term care hospital beds accommodate patients requiring long-term care due to their chronic impairments and their limited degree of independence in activities of daily living. Drive offers the Prime Care line of long-term care beds.

Long-term care beds offer more than the most standard hospital or home hospital beds. They provide higher and lower lifting ranges, battery backups not available with all home hospital beds, attendant controls, Trendelenburg positioning for patients who need it, and attractive designs. In addition, these beds can offer a more homelike appearance in the home setting.

Relatively more expensive than standard home hospital beds, the Prime Care line offers rails, rotating rails, more flexible positioning, and, in some models, can carry up to 600 pounds. The line offers a wide variety of mattresses available for separate purchase.

The styles available include therapeutic mattresses, pressure redistribution mattresses, alternative pressure and low air loss mattresses, and, at $3950, the top-of-the-line Harmony True Low Air Loss Tri-Therapy Mattress.

Drive Hospital Bed Accessories

Bed accessories from Drive include rails, mattresses, lift bars, emergency battery backups, and trapeze lifts. Drive also offers linens for their beds and bedside fall mats to reduce injuries when someone falls out of their bed. It also sells bed extension kits, rail bumper pads, and embedded staff control pads.

How to Choose the Right Drive Hospital Bed Mattress

Choosing the right mattress for your needs can be a challenge. There are six basic types of adjustable hospital beds:

Fully Electric
Semi-Electric
Manual
Low Hospital Beds
Bariatric Hospital Beds
Trendelenburg Hospital Beds

Once you determine which of these offers the features you need, you will want to consider the size of the bed (and of the patient who will use it) and the bed’s weight capacity, again keeping the weight of the patient in mind. If your patient is a wanderer or a nighttime stress Alzheimer’s patient, you may want to get a high-low bed that will keep the patient close to the floor during the vulnerable hours when they might fall out of bed. On the other hand, a high-low also allows the caregiver to use a comfortable height when caring for the patient.

Next, you will need to think about whether your patient needs side rails. As with the low bed, side rails can be very useful for patients who live to get out of bed without letting their caregiver know what they’re doing.

Finally, you’ll want to think about what your bed is made of and what it looks like. Most home hospital beds today are made of strong steel or aluminum construction. The difference often arises in the extent to which the bed’s designer or maker has tried to give the bed some homey aesthetics. In that case, the headboard and footboard will either be made of wood or be made to look as if they were made out of wood.

Getting in Touch with Drive Medical

Drive’s Toll-Free Customer Service Phone Number is 866-621-4933. You can also reach customer service on Drive’s website contact page at Drive Medical US Site. You can find them on Twitter at @drivemedical and on Facebook at (20+) Drive Medical | Facebook. On YouTube, look for Drive DeVilbiss Healthcare.

Wrapping Up

Though a relatively new member of the durable medical equipment community, Drive Medical offers a wide variety of beds and bed accessories. Further, it does so at a comfortable price range, offering something appropriate for almost any budget. Drive’s products are thoughtfully produced and considered industry-leading products.