Hospital bed having user input to enable and suspend remote monitoring of alert conditions

1. A hospital bed having a bed frame and communication circuitry operable to transmit bed status data to a network of a healthcare facility and to receive messages from the network, the messages including information indicating whether bed status conditions are being monitored by a remote computer of the network for generation of alert messages to at least one caregiver in response to alert conditions being indicated by the bed status data, the bed having at least one user input that is used locally at the bed to enable and suspend monitoring of the bed status conditions by the remote computer.

2. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the user input comprises a button and successive presses of the button enable and suspend monitoring of the bed status conditions by the remote computer.

3. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein a visual indicator is provided to indicate whether bed status conditions are being monitored by the remote computer.

4. The hospital bed of claim 3 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a light that shines a first color when the bed status conditions are being monitored by the remote computer.

5. The hospital bed of claim 4 , wherein the light flashes in response to the monitoring of the bed status conditions being suspended.

6. The hospital bed of claim 5 , wherein the light shines green in connection with the bed status conditions being monitored and the light flashes green in connection with monitoring of the bed status conditions being suspended.

7. The hospital bed of claim 4 , wherein the light is off when the bed status conditions are not being monitored by the remote computer.

8. The hospital bed of claim 3 , wherein the user input comprises a button and the visual indicator comprises a light on the button.

9. The hospital bed of claim 1 , further comprising a key button that must first be pressed and held for a first predetermined period of time before the user input to enable and suspend the monitoring can be used for that purpose.

10. The hospital bed of claim 9 , wherein after the key button has been pressed and held for the first predetermined period of time, the user input is usable only for a second predetermined period of time.

11. The hospital bed of claim 10 , wherein the second predetermined period of time is longer than the first predetermined period of time.

12. The hospital bed of claim 1 , further comprising a second user input to request that housekeeping personnel attend to cleaning the bed.

13. The hospital bed of claim 12 , wherein the second user input comprises a button and successive presses of the button requests housekeeping personnel and cancels the request for housekeeping personnel.

14. The hospital bed of claim 12 , wherein a visual indicator is provided to indicate whether housekeeping personnel has been requested.

15. The hospital bed of claim 14 , wherein the visual indicator comprises a light that shines a first color when housekeeping personnel has been requested and that is off when housekeeping personnel has not been requested.

16. The hospital bed of claim 14 , wherein the second user input comprises a button and the visual indicator comprises a light on the button.

17. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the communication circuitry wirelessly transmits bed status data and wirelessly receives messages.

18. The hospital bed of claim 1 , wherein the communication circuitry is operable to transmit a heartbeat signal.

19. The hospital bed of claim 18 , wherein the heartbeat signal includes a copyright notice.

20. The hospital bed of claim 19 , wherein the copyright notice comprises a company name and a year.