Bariatric & Specialty Configurations

Dolphin Wheelchair Cushion and Stretcher Pad (Seated and Transport Surfaces)

Pressure does not stop when someone gets out of bed. A person who is protected by a therapy surface for sixteen hours and then sits for four on an ordinary foam cushion has spent four hours loading the ischial tuberosities, and a wound at the sacrum or the ischium does not care which piece of furniture it happened on. Joerns builds two seated and transport surfaces in the Dolphin fluid immersion family for exactly that gap: a wheelchair cushion and a stretcher pad. Dolphin, Fluid Immersion Simulation and AutoVector are registered trademarks of Joerns Healthcare LLC. We are an authorized Joerns dealer.

These are two physically different products with two different ratings, and this page keeps them apart on purpose. The wheelchair cushion is 17 by 17 by 4 inches and Joerns gives its maximum safe working load as 250 lb. The stretcher pad is 36 by 76 by 5 inches and Joerns gives its maximum as 700 lb. Those numbers are not interchangeable, they are not the mattress numbers, and a single averaged figure would be wrong for both. If you take one thing from this page, take the two ratings.

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Schematic

Two different mechanisms, drawn side by side

Alternating pressure

Discrete cells, inflating and deflating in cycle

Fluid immersion simulation

One continuous envelope, sensor-driven

Alternating pressure. An air pump inflates and deflates separate cells in sequence, so the areas carrying the load keep changing on a repeating cycle. At any one moment the body is resting on the cells that happen to be inflated. This is the mechanism behind the Medicare Group 2 powered surfaces, alongside low air loss.

Fluid immersion simulation. There is no cycle and no sequence of cells. Joerns describes the system as automatically measuring a patient’s anthropometric characteristics as they engage the surface and producing an individualized immersion profile that creates a near neutrally buoyant state, with the AutoVector® control module monitoring the support surface more than 100 times per second.

Both panels are schematics. Neither is to scale, and neither is a cutaway or a drawing of any real product. A Dolphin FIS is also not an air-fluidized bed — that is a different device again, one that circulates warm air through silicone-coated ceramic beads.

Rent monthly Buy outright

Rent by the month

Call for a quote

The monthly rate depends on the model we match to the patient. Ask the order desk and we will quote it before you order.

Billed monthly for as long as the surface is in use
Return it when the need ends, with no long-term commitment
One surface matched to the patient and the care plan

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Buy outright

Call for a quote

Purchase pricing depends on the configuration and the quantity. Ask the order desk for a written quote.

One-time price, with no monthly billing
The surface stays with the facility or the household
Warranty terms are the manufacturer’s; ask us to confirm them before you order
Often eligible for HSA or FSA funds with a Letter of Medical Necessity; your plan administrator decides.

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Models we carry

Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Wheelchair Cushion
Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Stretcher Pad

Shipped by freight, with the lane quoted before you order
Cleaned and function-tested before it ships
Itemized invoices for plan and facility claims

Who this rental is for, and when it is needed

The wheelchair cushion is for someone with a pressure injury or a high risk of one who spends real time seated — often a person with a spinal cord injury, a long-term wheelchair user, or someone discharged onto a therapy mattress whose care plan has a gap in it every time they sit up in a chair. The 250 lb limit is the first filter and it is a firm one: Joerns publishes the wheelchair cushion maximum safe working load as 250 lb, which is substantially below the mattress figures, and a cushion loaded past its rating is not doing the job it was bought for.

The stretcher pad is a transport and procedural surface. Its 700 lb rating and its 36 by 76 inch footprint put it in a different world from the cushion: this is the surface under someone during a move, a wait, or a procedure where they would otherwise be on a thin stretcher mattress. Joerns notes on this line generally that the 12-hour battery backup allows for active therapy even during patient transport, which is the clearest statement of what a transport surface in this family is for — continuing the therapy through the part of the day where it usually stops.

Neither product is a seating assessment, and this is where we would rather be blunt than helpful-sounding. What cushion a wheelchair user should sit on is a decision for an occupational therapist or a seating clinic, made against the chair, the frame, the person’s posture, their transfers and their skin history. A fluid immersion cushion in a chair that fits badly will not fix the chair. If there is a seating clinic involved, ask them first and bring us their specification.

Situations we set this up for

A therapy mattress at night and an ordinary foam cushion by day
An ischial or sacral wound in someone who sits for several hours
A long-term wheelchair user under 250 lb with a pressure history
A spinal cord injury, stabilized and cleared, with a seated pressure problem
Transport or a procedure where a person would be on a thin stretcher mattress
A larger patient needing a transport surface — the pad is rated 700 lb
A care plan that covers the bed and says nothing about the chair

Models and specifications

Figures below are the manufacturer's published specifications. We confirm the exact unit and its ratings with you before it ships.

Seating & Transport Pads at a glance

Published specifications for Dolphin Wheelchair & Stretcher Seating Pads
Sleep surface	Not published
Surface depth	Not published
Weight capacity	Not published
Therapy type	Not published
Power and battery	Sealed 12 VDC rechargeable; approximately 12 hours, which Joerns notes allows therapy during transport
Alarms	Not published
HSA and FSA	Often eligible with a Letter of Medical Necessity; your plan administrator decides

Figures are the manufacturer’s published specifications. Anything shown as "Not published" is a figure we have not confirmed in writing; ask us and we will check the spec sheet for the exact unit before it ships.

Joerns Healthcare

Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Wheelchair Cushion

The cushion is 17 inches wide by 17 inches long by 4 inches deep — 43 by 43 by 10 cm — and weighs 5 lb. Joerns gives its maximum safe working load as 250 lb. That is the lowest rating in the Dolphin range by a wide margin, and it rules the cushion out for a great many people who could use the mattress; there is no larger version of it in the specifications we work from, so if the person is above 250 lb we will tell you this is not available to them rather than quote around it.

Seventeen by seventeen is a seat size, not a universal fitting. A wheelchair seat is specified by width and depth and neither is standard across chairs; a cushion that is too wide will not drop into the seat pan, and one that is too narrow leaves the thighs unsupported at the edges. Measure the chair’s seat, not the person, and send us both figures. If a seating therapist has already specified a cushion size, that specification governs.

The therapy principle is the Dolphin principle applied to a seated load. Joerns describes fluid immersion simulation as automatically simulating a fluid environment, maintaining near normal blood flow, minimizing soft tissue distortion and optimizing tissue oxygenation, and describes the system as automatically measuring the specific anthropometric characteristics of the individual patient as they engage the support surface. Seated loading concentrates weight over a much smaller area than lying does, which is why the seated surface is a distinct product rather than a piece cut from a mattress.

One thing we will not do on this page is describe how the cushion connects and what drives it as though we had the figures. Joerns documents the cushion in the same user-service manual as the mattress and the AutoVector control unit, with the same system specifications, but whether a control unit you already own will drive a cushion is a question about your specific unit, and we confirm it against that unit before an order goes out rather than assuming it.

Dimensions: 17" (43 cm) W × 17" (43 cm) L × 4" (10 cm) D
Maximum safe working load: 250 lb (113.6 kg) — the lowest rating in the Dolphin range
Cushion weight: 5 lb (2.3 kg)
Fitting: Measure the wheelchair seat pan width and depth, not the person
Control unit: AutoVector®, 11.5" W × 12.5" H × 6" D, 10 lb (4.5 kg)
Operating conditions: 50–95 °F (10–35 °C), 30–75% RH non-condensing, IPX2
Electrical: 115/230 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 0.34/0.21 A

Joerns Healthcare

Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Stretcher Pad

The stretcher pad is 36 inches by 76 inches by 5 inches — 91 by 193 by 13 cm — and weighs 14 lb. Joerns gives its maximum safe working load as 700 lb. That figure is worth noting carefully, because it sits above the 500 lb rating of the standard and wide therapy mattresses and below the 1,000 lb of the bariatric surface. It is its own number for its own product, and it should not be read across to a mattress order in either direction.

At 5 inches deep and 76 inches long, this is a stretcher-format surface, not a bed mattress with a different name. It is shallower and shorter than the 82-inch therapy mattresses and it is intended for the stretcher or trolley it fits. Check the deck dimensions of the stretcher it is going onto before ordering: the same fit logic applies here as on a bed, and a pad that leaves gaps against the rails or the ends of a stretcher deck creates the same hazard Joerns warns about on bed frames.

The transport case is the one Joerns makes itself. Joerns states that the 12 hour battery life allows for active therapy even during patient transport, and its manual is more precise: the rechargeable battery provides alternate power to the control unit for approximately 12 hours in the event that the system is disconnected or during a power failure. Approximately twelve hours is what to plan around, not a guaranteed runtime, and a long transfer day plus a wait at the far end can consume more of it than anyone expects.

Dimensions: 36" (91 cm) × 76" (193 cm) × 5" (13 cm)
Maximum safe working load: 700 lb (318.1 kg) — its own figure, not the mattress figure
Pad weight: 14 lb (6.3 kg)
Battery backup: Sealed 12 VDC rechargeable; approximately 12 hours, which Joerns notes allows therapy during transport
Control unit: AutoVector®, 11.5" W × 12.5" H × 6" D, 10 lb (4.5 kg)
Operating conditions: 50–95 °F (10–35 °C), 30–75% RH non-condensing, IPX2
Electrical: 115/230 VAC, 50/60 Hz, 0.34/0.21 A

What makes it work at home

Two products, two ratings

The wheelchair cushion is rated 250 lb and the stretcher pad 700 lb. Neither is the mattress figure. We keep them separate on this page because averaging them would be wrong for both.

Cover the seated hours

A therapy surface in the bed and foam in the chair leaves a gap every afternoon. Seated loading concentrates weight over a much smaller area, which is why the seated surface is a separate product.

Therapy that continues through transport

Joerns states the 12 hour battery life allows for active therapy even during patient transport, and gives approximately 12 hours of alternate power when the system is disconnected or mains fails.

Light enough to move

The cushion is 5 lb, the stretcher pad 14 lb, the control unit 10 lb. These are surfaces that travel, which is most of the reason they exist in this format.

Fitted to the chair or the deck

A 17-inch cushion has to match the seat pan; a 36 by 76 inch pad has to match the stretcher deck. We ask for those measurements before quoting, not after.

The same fluid immersion principle

Joerns describes the technology as automatically simulating a fluid environment, maintaining near normal blood flow, minimizing soft tissue distortion and optimizing tissue oxygenation.

Delivery and setup

These orders start with measurements of something other than a person. For a cushion we want the wheelchair’s seat pan width and depth and the make and model of the chair, plus any specification a seating therapist has already written. For a stretcher pad we want the stretcher or trolley deck dimensions and its rails. Fit on a seated or transport surface is not a comfort matter: a cushion that does not sit properly in a seat pan shifts under the person, and a pad that leaves gaps at a stretcher rail creates the same hazard Joerns warns about on bed frames, where the risk of entrapment arises from gaps of even a few inches and the equipment is not to be used when such gaps are present.

At handover we set the surface in place, run the system, and walk the caregiver or the transport staff through the controls, the battery and what the approximate twelve-hour figure does and does not promise. Where the surface will travel, we go through the practical questions people only discover in a corridor: where the control unit rides, how the hoses are kept off the floor and away from wheels, and where it plugs in when it arrives. If the same person is also on a Dolphin therapy mattress, we go through which surface is doing what at which hour of the day, because that is the whole reason for owning both.

How in-home setup and pickup work

Before we arrive

Measure the wheelchair seat pan width and depth; have the chair’s make and model.
For a stretcher pad, measure the trolley deck and note the rails.
Check the person’s weight against the right rating: 250 lb for the cushion, 700 lb for the pad.
Ask the occupational therapist or seating clinic for their specification before ordering a cushion.
Plan where the control unit sits and rides, and keep hoses off the floor and away from wheels.
Keep a wall outlet available at the place the person spends the seated part of the day.
Know what the care plan says about sitting time, and ask if it says nothing.

Choosing the right one

The choice between these two is not really a choice; they are different surfaces for different parts of the day. The cushion is a seated surface for a chair, limited to 250 lb and sized 17 by 17 inches. The pad is a transport and procedural surface, 36 by 76 inches and rated 700 lb. What is a genuine decision is whether you need a seated surface at all, and that depends on how many hours the person actually spends out of bed and what the wound care plan says about sitting time. If someone is bedbound, this page is not the one you need; if they sit for hours every day with a pressure injury, the bed alone is not covering them.

Set against the mattresses, the trade-off is coverage versus continuity. A Dolphin therapy mattress addresses the lying hours on a surface rated 500 lb, or 1,000 lb in the 48-inch bariatric configuration. These pads address the seated and transported hours at 250 lb and 700 lb respectively. Where budget forces a choice, ask the wound care nurse which hours matter most for this particular wound and this particular person — the answer differs for a sacral wound in someone who lies flat and an ischial wound in someone who sits all afternoon, and it is their call, not ours.

Paying for the rental

These are bought or rented privately. We do not bill Medicare and we do not file claims on your behalf. It is also worth being precise about why, because a seat cushion and a mattress are not even in the same benefit conversation: Medicare treats pressure-reducing support surfaces for beds under the Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 classification — Group 2 being the powered surfaces E0277, E0371, E0372 and E0373, and Group 3 the single air-fluidized code E0194 — while wheelchair seating is handled under a different benefit entirely. We are not going to name a code for a fluid immersion cushion, because we could find no coding verification assigning any code to a Dolphin FIS product, and quoting a plausible-looking code at you would be worse than saying so.

What that leaves is the private route. A clinician-documented therapeutic surface for a diagnosed pressure injury is the kind of dual-purpose item a Letter of Medical Necessity exists for, and a seating item is often easier to describe in one than a mattress is, because nobody owns a therapy cushion for ordinary comfort. The letter is the clinician’s document, typically naming the condition, the item, why the item is needed for that condition and a duration; the plan administrator applies the IRS rules to your claim and decides; and a card swipe is not substantiation, which is why administrators ask for documentation afterwards. We provide an itemised receipt showing the item, the date, the amount and a description suited to substantiation, and we do not draft or pre-fill the letter. If a seating clinic is already involved, they are usually the right people to write it, because they have the assessment behind it.

Insurance and funding guides

Mistakes we help people avoid

Assuming the cushion carries a mattress rating: Joerns publishes the wheelchair cushion maximum safe working load as 250 lb. That is far below the 500 lb and 1,000 lb mattress figures and it is not negotiable by adding a layer or a different cover.
Ordering a cushion without measuring the chair: Seventeen by seventeen inches is one seat size among many. Too wide and it will not drop into the pan; too narrow and the thighs lose support at the edges. Measure the seat, not the person.
Skipping the seating therapist: What a wheelchair user should sit on is an occupational therapy and seating clinic decision made against the chair, the posture and the transfers. A cushion does not fix a chair that fits badly.
Planning transport around twelve hours exactly: Joerns says approximately 12 hours of alternate power, not a guaranteed runtime. A long transfer, a wait at the far end and a delay in finding an outlet all draw on the same reserve.

When something else is the better choice

If the person weighs more than 250 lb, the wheelchair cushion is not available to them at that rating and we will not supply it anyway. If they weigh more than 700 lb, the same is true of the stretcher pad. If they are bedbound and do not sit out, a seated surface is money spent on hours that do not happen — put it into the bed surface or into care. And if no occupational therapist, seating clinic or wound care nurse has looked at the seating setup, start there rather than here: a cushion bought without an assessment can mask a chair that fits badly, change a transfer that was already marginal, or alter a posture someone has spent months getting right. There is one more thing you should weigh before spending. Aetna’s Clinical Policy Bulletin 0430 lists fluid immersion simulation among items it considers experimental, investigational or unproven, names the Dolphin FIS system, and describes it as institutional equipment that is inappropriate for home use, on the basis that evidence of effectiveness in the home setting is insufficient. That is a published position from a major commercial payer, it covers this technology rather than any one product in the family, and we would rather you read it here than find it after you have paid. Nothing on this page reduces the need for a repositioning routine in a chair, pressure relief lifts if the person can do them, skin checks and the rest of what the care team has asked for.

Urgent order

Discharge tomorrow? Tell us before you commit to a date.

Send the order desk the patient’s weight, the therapy the care team has specified and the ship-to address. We will come back to you with what is in stock, what the freight lane looks like and what can realistically arrive in time, before you promise anything to the family.

Weight and height of the patient
Therapy the care team has specified
Ship-to address and dock or door access
Date the surface has to be in the room

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Seating & Transport Pads: common questions

What is the weight limit on the Dolphin wheelchair cushion?

Joerns gives the wheelchair cushion maximum safe working load as 250 lb, or 113.6 kg. That is the lowest rating in the Dolphin range and much lower than the therapy mattresses, which are 500 lb in the standard and wide widths and 1,000 lb in the 48-inch bariatric configuration. If the person is above 250 lb, the cushion is not the right product for them.

What size is the cushion, and will it fit our wheelchair?

It is 17 inches wide by 17 inches long by 4 inches deep and weighs 5 lb. Whether it fits depends on the chair’s seat pan, which varies by make and model. Measure the seat pan width and depth and send us both, along with the chair make and model. If a seating therapist has specified a cushion size, that specification should govern rather than ours.

How much does the stretcher pad hold?

Joerns gives the stretcher pad maximum safe working load as 700 lb, or 318.1 kg. It measures 36 by 76 by 5 inches and weighs 14 lb. That 700 lb figure belongs to the pad alone — it is higher than the 500 lb therapy mattresses and lower than the 1,000 lb bariatric mattress, and it should not be read across to any other product.

Can the therapy keep running during a transfer between facilities?

Joerns states that the 12 hour battery life allows for active therapy even during patient transport, and its manual describes the rechargeable battery as providing alternate power to the control unit for approximately 12 hours when the system is disconnected or during a power failure. Plan around approximately twelve hours rather than treating it as a guaranteed runtime, and find an outlet at the far end sooner rather than later.

Do I need one of these if we already have a Dolphin therapy mattress?

Only if the person spends meaningful time out of bed. A mattress covers the lying hours; a chair with an ordinary foam cushion leaves the seated hours uncovered, and seated loading concentrates weight over a much smaller area. Ask the wound care nurse which hours matter for this particular wound. If the person is bedbound, a seated surface is not what the money should go on.

Is the cushion a substitute for a seating assessment?

No, and we would rather say so than sell one on that basis. What a wheelchair user sits on is a decision for an occupational therapist or a seating clinic, made against the chair, the posture, the transfers and the skin history. A fluid immersion cushion in a badly fitting chair does not fix the chair. Bring us the clinic’s specification and we will supply to it.

Will insurance pay for a fluid immersion cushion?

We cannot tell you that it will, and we do not bill Medicare. Wheelchair seating falls under a different Medicare benefit from bed support surfaces, and we found no coding verification assigning any code to a Dolphin FIS product, so we will not name one. The realistic route is private payment, potentially with a Letter of Medical Necessity from your clinician, where your plan administrator makes the decision.

What do these cost?

There is no published band for the seating and transport pads, so they are quoted. Rental and purchase are both possible. Tell us which surface you need, the chair or stretcher measurements, and the person’s weight when you ask, because those three things determine whether we can supply at all before they determine a figure.

Rent or buy the Seating & Transport Pads

Tell us who it is for, the date it has to be in the room and where it ships to. We will confirm the model, the price both ways and the freight lane before you commit.

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