Bedpan
United States Patent 1191 Howe [ BEDPAN [76] Inventor: Hugo E. Howe, 625 Saint Joseph Ave., Long Beach, Calif. 90814 [22] Filed: June 11, 1973 21 Appl. No.: 368,472  
 Primary Examiner-Henry K. Artis Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Clarence A. OBrien; Harvey B. Jacobson [57] ABSTRACT A side type bedpan having an unobstructedly open top [451 Apr. 15, 1975 which lends itself to effectual defecation use by a bed patient after having learned the knack of reclining on one side. The bedpan is made from moldable but selfshape-retaining high-impact plastic material. A horizontal bottom wall is marginally surrounded by an integral upstanding rim. The rim embodies a contoured proximal patient contacting front wall, a distal rear wall and complemental interconnecting end walls. An attachable and detachable adapter for the bedpan is designed and adapted to be interposed between the mattress and underneath side of the bottom wall of the pan. The adapter has two component parts, namely, (1) a base portion at a rearward end atop which the bottom wall of the bedpan is supportively and fully seated when the bedpan is being used and (2) a pan positioning and retaining flap which seats the lower buttocks so that the adapter-equipped pan is held in a given usable position. The adapter may also be formed as an integral portion of the bottom wall of the pan and comprise only a forwardly projecting pan positioning and retaining flange or flap for disposition between the lower buttocks and the mattress. An antisplash shield which serves as a hip cover is also provided and is detachably connected to an upper edge of the rear wall.  
 10 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures BEDPAN This invention relates to certain new and useful improvements in bedpans for defecation use by patients confined, temporarily or permanently, in bed, and has to do, more particularly, with an innovation which is unique in that it lends itself to effectually serviceable use while the patient lies on one side, say the left side, and achieves the result desired.  
  Repeated and experimental nursing care has shown that a bed patient can and gradually does learn the knack of restfully reclining on one side, using a properly located open-top bedpan and making it practical to achieve the result desired and, in so doing, enabling the bedside nurse or other attendant to handle the patient and pan requirements to the mutual benefit and satisfaction of all concerned.  
  Persons conversant with the art of washable and reusable bedpans are aware that many and varied styles and forms of specially contoured bedpans have been devised and are in widespread use.  
  An object of the herein disclosed concept is to advance the art of bedpans particularly wherein the several separable and connectible component parts are capable of being satisfactorily manufactured and used particularly in that the parts or units are susceptible of being manufactured economically and expeditiously using acceptably serviceable high impact sheet plastic materials.  
  Briefly, the bedpan by itself is characterized by a properly contoured front wall which serves to accommodate the buttocks of the user, particularly the lower buttock. The opposed or rearward wall is exteriorly provided with a simple balanced handgrip for reliable handling purposes. The unobstructed open top adapts the receptacle portion to feasible use. The upper portion of the distal or rearward wall is extended and the upper edge is constructed to accommodate attaching hooks on an edge portion of an attachable and detachable anti-splash shield which also serves as a hip cover. The adapter may comprise an integral portion of the pan or be formed as a one-piece sheet plastic unit of requisite rigidity, the same having an extending tongue or flap and that portion thereof beneath the bottom of the bedpan constituting a base and having keeper slots to accommodate pan positioning and retaining keepers depending distributively from the bottom of the bedpan.  
  These together with other objects and advantages which will become subsequently apparent reside in the details of construction and operation as more fully hereinafter described and claimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawings forming a part hereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout.  
  FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of a bedpan constructed in accordance with the principles&#39;of the present invention including a removable adapter and wherein the removable cover of the pan is shown in use and wherein the anti-splash shield or hip cover is omitted for clearness of illustration.  
  FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a modified form of bedpan with an integral adapter and with the applicable and removable cover off and the hip cover or anitsplash shield in ready-to-use position.  
  FIG. 3 is a bottom plan view of the bedpan of FIG. 1 showing the relationship of the adapter and bottom of the handle-equipped bedpan and also showing the coaction of the keepers and keeper slots.  
 FIG. 4 is a view in perspective of the adapter by itself.  
  FIG. 5 is a rear end elevation observing, for example, FIG. 1, in a direction from left to right and with the anti-splash shield or hip cover in position.  
  FIG. 6 is a fragmentary detail section showing the lug-type keepers and detents of the pan and attachment wherein one such lug and detent is shown keyed in place.  
  FIG. 7 is a view in section and partly in elevation showing all of the component parts assembled, including a removable inner liner for the pan, and also showing the manner of use of this side type pan.  
  Taking up first the component part which is desig nated as the bedpan proper it will be noted that this part is denoted by the numeral 10. As already mentioned this part and all of the other parts are made from high-impact moldable sheet plastic material of such grade as is required by the manufacturer. It will be noted that the pan is reasonably shallow so that it can be employed as a side pan as illustrated in FIG. 7. The bottom wall is substantially flat as denoted at 12 and is of appropriate shape and size. The bedpans will vary in size in actual practice as manufacturing and use requirements necessitate. The front wall 14 of the rim portion of the pan is contoured in the manner shown to achieve body contact and conforming results, shown for example in FIG. 7. The wall may be construed as a suitable compound curve, the median portion being contoured as at 16 to provide coaction with the upper and lower buttocks l8 and 20 as shown in FIG. 7. The rear wall is slightly inclined upwardly and rearwardly as denoted at 22 and has an extended upper edge portion 24 the extreme edge 26 of which is provided with spaced seating notches 28. While considering this wall and the notches it may be added that the numeral 30 designates a properly shaped and proportioned readily attachable and detachable component which is here referred to as an anti-splash shield and also as a hip cover and which has a downwardly bent or lateral end portion 32 contacting the extension 24 and provided with downwardly and outwardly inclined positioning and retaining hooks 34. This arrangement of features serves to properly tie-in with the transverse end walls of the rim, that is, the walls 36 as shown with particularity in FIG. 7. Thus the rim-equipped pan and attachable and detachable shield or cover constitute associatively cooperable parts of the overall assembly and the retaining hooks or flanges 34 enable the wall 30 to be further inclined upwardly as shown by phantom lines in FIG. 7 to increase the distance between the tongue 46 and the free edge of the wall 30.  
  An equally important and outstanding feature is that which is referred to as the bedpan supporting adapter, this being denoted by the numeral 38 and also being made from sheet plastic material. It is characterized as provided at the rear with a substantially flat base 40 marginally surrounded by an upstanding flange 42. This flanged base provides a shallow but satisfactory receiver for the bottom portion of the pan when it is in use. The forward median portion of the adapter is provided with a suitable and properly proportioned bend or bent portion 44 which merges into an extending narrowing tongue 46 which constitutes a positioning and pan holding flap. The free tip or end of this flap is rounded as at 48 and when the flap is in place it provides a satisfactory seat and retainer for the coating portion of the users body as shown in FIG. 7. In other words the flap provides a piloting guide for positioning the overall assembly, satisfactory seat for the lower or bottom buttock and it is interposed between the mattress and user to better accomplish the positioning and bedpan holding result. For best results it has been found that the&#39;base portion should be provided with distributively arranged keeper slots 50, each slot being provided on the bottom side with a lateral rearwardly extending undercut portion which provides a pocketing recess as denoted at 52 in FIG. 6. Each pocketed slot serves to accommodate a depending lug 54 which provides a keeper and which is equipped with a projecting detent 56 fitting into the pocket 52 as brought out in FIG. 6. By thus interconnecting the bottom of the pan and base portion of the adapter it will be seen that the likelihood of displacement or disconnection of the pan and base is reduced to a practical minimum. In addition to these features it is desirable as experience has shown to provide the central exterior surface of the back or rear wall with a D-shaped handgrip 58 as illustrated in FIG. 7.  
  It isbelieved that a careful consideration of the views of the drawing will enable the reader to obtain a clear and comprehensive understanding of the construction of the novel pan 10, the flanged cover 11 therefor, the readily attachable and detachable and optionally usable hip cover and anti-splash shield 30, the manner in which the lateral end portion 32 is connectible with the notches 28, and also the specific construction and intended functioning of the slotted tongue-equipped adapter unit 38. Then, too, a consideration of the safety retaining result is brought out in FIG. 6 and the manner of reclining side-type use is brought out in FIG. 7. Accordingly, a more extended description is deemed to be unnecessary.  
  With attention invited more specifically to FIG. 2 of the drawings wherein the modified form of invention may be seen, the bedpan is generally designated by the reference numeral 10&#39; and is substantially identical to the bedpan assembly 10. Accordingly, the various components of the assembly 10&#39; corresponding to the similar components of the assembly 10 are designated by corresponding prime reference numerals. The only difference between the pan assembly 10&#39; and the pan assembly 10 is that the forwardly projecting base 40&#39; is formed as an integral portion of the bottom wall 12&#39;. Accordingly, the entire adapter 38&#39; is formed as an integral portion of the pan 10. Also, in FIG. 7 of the drawings there may be seen a one-piece specifically formed flexible and disposable liner 60 which may be inserted in the pan 10 or the pan 10 just prior to its use and be discarded after use of the pan.  
  The foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention.. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.  
 What is claimed as new is as follows:  
  1. For defecation use by a bed patient, an open top side-type bedpan embodying a horizontal bottom wall marginally encompassed by an integral upstanding riim, said rim embodying a proximal patient contacting front wall, a distal rear wall and complemental end walls structurally and functionally uniting said bottom, front and rear walls, an adapter for said bedpan designed and adapted to be interposed between a bed mattress and the underneath side of said bottom wall, said adapter havingt l) a base portion at a rearward end atop which the bottom wall of said bedpan is supportively and fully seated when the bedpan is being used, and (2) a lower buttocks seating and pan retaining flap at the forward end of said adapter.  
  2. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 1, and wherein said bottom wall is substantially flat, said base portion being essentially but not wholly flat, said base portion having keeper accommodation slots, and the underneath surface of said bottom wall having integral pan positioning and retaining keepers, selectively aligned with and retentively but releasably engaging their respectively cooperable keeper accommodating slots.  
  3. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 1, and wherein said bottom wall is substantially flat, said base portion being essentially but not wholly flat, said base portion having keeper accommodation slots, and the underneath surface of said bottom wall having integral pan positioning and retaining keepers, selectively aligned with and retentively but releasably engaging their respectively cooperable keeper accommodating slots, said slots having undercut recesses defining keying shoulders, and said keepers having complemental lug-like detents retentively coacting with their coordinating keying shoulders.  
  4. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 3, and wherein marginal edge portions of said base portion are provided with a vertically short upstanding flange which in conjunction with the base portion constitutes a shallow receiver for said pan, said flap being tongue-like in plan and of a size and shape in plan to comfortably seat the lower buttocks with requisite nicety and said slots with the keepers engaged therein being oriented in a manner that the likelihood of accidental displacement of said pan from said adapter during use is reduced to a practical and reliable minimum.  
  5. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 4, and wherein an exterior surface of the rear wall of said pan is centrally provided with a balanced handgrip.  
  6. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 2, and wherein said front wall is contoured in a lengthwise direction to adapt itself to the lower buttocks which is buttressed thereagainst when the bedpan is being used.  
  7. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 6 and, an anti-splash shield adapted to overlie the open top of said pan, said shield providing a hip cover and having shield attaching and retaining hooks at one end releasably engageable in recesses provided therefor in a free upper edge of said rear wall.  
  8. The bedpan defined in and according to claim 7, and wherein said bedpan, adapter, and anti-splash shield are each made from high-impact self-shaperetaining sheet plastic material.  
  9. In combination, a bedpan adapter comprising a base member marginally provided with upstanding flange means, and also provided with a narrowing outstanding forward tongue, said tongue constituting a user accommodating and pan positioning and retaining flap, an attachable and detachable bedpan embodying a receptacle portion having a bottom wall removably seated atop said base and having an upstanding rim emwherein said rear wall is provided with an upper extension having an upper edge which in turn is provided with spaced notches, and an anti-splash shield, constituting a hip cover, said cover being adapted to overlie the hip of the user and having one end portion provided with assembling and retaining hooks which are releasably cooperable with said notches.