Skip to content
Ask the order desk for a callback

Bariatric & Specialty Configurations

Pediatric and Crib Dolphin FIS Systems

Joerns builds the fluid immersion surface in pediatric and crib formats, and states that the system is able to accommodate patients from 5 lb to 300 lb on the pediatric therapy mattress. Five pounds is a neonatal figure, and it tells you where these surfaces came from and who they are built around: children in hospital, in long-term ventilator care, and increasingly at home with the kind of complex medical needs that used to keep a child on a ward. Dolphin, Dolphin FIS, Fluid Immersion Simulation and AutoVector are registered trademarks of Joerns Healthcare LLC. We are an authorized Joerns dealer.

We want to be careful on this page in a way we are not on the adult ones. Pediatric pressure care is not adult pressure care scaled down. Children have different skin, different proportions, different equipment against them — tracheostomy flanges, halo vests, gastrostomy buttons, splints and casts — and a great deal of pediatric skin damage is device-related rather than immobility-related. Nothing on this page is advice about a child. Everything about whether a particular child needs a therapy surface, and which one, belongs to the pediatric team: the wound or ostomy nurse, the physician, the complex care coordinator. We will supply what they specify and we will tell you when a question has not been asked of them yet.

Request a callback Get a Quote

Schematic

Two different mechanisms, drawn side by side

Alternating pressure

Discrete cells, inflating and deflating in cycle

Schematic of an alternating pressure surface A simplified side view. A row of separate air cells stands on a flat platform. Some cells are tall and inflated, the ones between them are short and deflated, and small arrows show each about to swap. An abstract body outline rests on top of the inflated cells, touching the surface only at those raised points, and the drawing is labelled to say the cycle repeats so the loaded points keep changing. the cycle repeats load moves between contact points

Fluid immersion simulation

One continuous envelope, sensor-driven

Schematic of a fluid immersion simulation surface A simplified side view drawn to match the panel beside it. Instead of separate cells there is one continuous surface whose upper edge curves down into a smooth basin, and the same abstract body outline sits down inside that basin rather than on top of it. Evenly spaced arrows along the whole length of the contact stand for support spread continuously rather than concentrated on raised points, and a dashed two-headed arrow runs between the surface and a control module box, standing for the sensing loop. AutoVector® control module no cells, no cycle

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.

How do you want Pediatric & Crib? Choose monthly rental or outright purchase.

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
Request this rental Request a callback

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.
Request a purchase quote Request a callback

Models we carry

  • Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Pediatric Fluid Immersion Simulation® Therapy Mattress
  • Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Crib Therapy Mattress
  • 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 commonest route to this page is a discharge from a children’s hospital or a long-term pediatric unit where a therapy surface was in use on the ward and the home plan has to reproduce it. Families arrive already fluent in the equipment and short on time. The second route is a child with an existing pressure injury — often occipital, sacral or over a bony prominence in a child with limited movement — where the team has asked for a pressure-redistributing therapy surface and the standard crib or bed mattress plainly is not one.

Joerns describes the underlying technology in the same terms across the range: initially developed for the dry transport of specially trained U.S. Navy dolphins, fluid immersion simulation automatically simulates a fluid environment, maintaining near normal blood flow, minimizing soft tissue distortion and optimizing tissue oxygenation. It was developed for that original use, not by the Navy, and neither the Navy nor any hospital endorses this product or us. Joerns’ broader clinical indications — prevention and healing of pressure injuries through Stage 4, post-operative flaps and grafts, patients whose condition precludes turning and repositioning — are the manufacturer’s wording, and Joerns closes them by saying its clinical indications are guidelines, to be taken only as recommendations for consideration during individual patient assessment by the clinician. For a child, that sentence is the whole page.

The third group is families managing a child who cannot be turned comfortably: after spinal surgery, with severe spasticity or contractures, in palliative care. Turning a child through the night is not physically hard in the way turning an adult is, but it wakes the child, it wakes the household, and it goes on for months. That is a real reason to ask the team about a therapy surface. It is not a reason to buy one without asking them.

Situations we set this up for

  • A therapy surface used on the ward that the home plan has to reproduce
  • An occipital, sacral or bony-prominence pressure injury in a child with limited movement
  • A child in long-term ventilator or complex care at home
  • After spinal surgery, or with spasticity or contractures that make turning difficult
  • Pediatric palliative care where turning through the night disrupts everyone
  • A hospital crib that needs a therapy surface rather than a standard mattress
  • A discharge coordinator asking what is available in a pediatric size

Models and specifications

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

Pediatric & Crib at a glance

Published specifications for Pediatric & Crib Dolphin FIS Systems
Sleep surface Not published
Surface depth Not published
Weight capacity 5–300 lb
Therapy type Autofirm; returns to the previous setting after approximately 15 minutes
Power and battery Sealed 12 VDC rechargeable; approximately 12 hours
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® Pediatric Fluid Immersion Simulation® Therapy Mattress

Joerns states that the pediatric system accommodates patients from 5 lb to 300 lb — 2.3 to 136 kg — and gives 5 lb (2.3 kg) as the minimum for the pediatric system. A minimum matters on a surface like this in a way it does not on an adult one. The technology works by measuring how a body engages the surface and responding to it, and a very small child presents very little load to measure, which is precisely why there is a dedicated pediatric product rather than an adult surface used carefully.

The upper figure, 300 lb, is worth noting too: a pediatric surface that reaches 300 lb covers adolescents and young adults in pediatric services, not only small children. Where a patient sits near the top of that range, the adult configurations are also in scope and the team may have a view on which is appropriate. As on every Dolphin surface, the capacity is the mattress capacity only — Joerns’ footnote is that total weight must not exceed the bed frame manufacturer’s specified load capacity — and a pediatric bed or crib frame has its own published limit that governs the setup.

The therapy is the Dolphin system as Joerns documents it across the line. The AutoVector control unit is 11.5 by 12.5 by 6 inches and weighs 10 lb. Joerns states that the control module monitors the support surface more than 100 times per second for any patient movement or surface changes, that the system automatically measures the specific anthropometric characteristics of the individual patient as they engage the support surface, and that there is no need for direct intervention or manual entry to adjust comfort settings. A sealed 12 VDC rechargeable battery gives approximately 12 hours of alternate power if the system is disconnected or mains power fails. Autofirm firms the surface for care and returns to the previous setting after approximately 15 minutes. A quick CPR deflation valve is fitted.

One honest note about settings on a small patient. Joerns’ manual contains specific guidance for very light patients, and it is clinical setup guidance rather than a feature: it belongs with the nurse or therapist who commissions the surface, and we go through it with them at setup rather than publishing it as a selling point. If a child is at the light end of the range, raise it explicitly with the care team and with us, because it is the part of the setup most worth getting right and most easily left unasked.

Patient range
5 lb to 300 lb (2.3–136 kg), pediatric therapy mattress
System minimum
5 lb (2.3 kg)
Frame limit
Mattress capacity only; total weight must not exceed the bed frame manufacturer’s specified load capacity (Joerns)
Control unit
AutoVector®, 11.5" W × 12.5" H × 6" D, 10 lb (4.5 kg)
Sensing rate
Joerns: monitors the support surface more than 100 times per second
Battery backup
Sealed 12 VDC rechargeable; approximately 12 hours
Care mode
Autofirm; returns to the previous setting after approximately 15 minutes
Emergency
Quick CPR deflation valve
Cover
Smooth nylon, low friction and low shear; breathable, moisture vapour permeable
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® Crib Therapy Mattress

Joerns publishes the crib therapy mattress in two sizes. The US size is 29.5 inches wide by 57 inches long by 5 inches deep — 75 by 145 by 13 cm. The International size is 28 inches by 50 inches by 4 inches — 71 by 128 by 10 cm. Both sizes appear in Joerns’ user-service manual and in its pediatric specification sheet, and they are genuinely different products rather than a rounding of each other: an inch and a half of width, seven inches of length and an inch of depth apart.

That difference is the single most important thing on this part of the page, because a crib mattress that does not fill the crib is a safety problem before it is a therapy problem. Hospital cribs and domestic cribs are not built to the same internal dimensions, and neither are cribs sold in different markets. Measure the inside of the crib frame at the base — width and length — and send us both figures before ordering. Joerns’ own entrapment warning, written for bed frames, applies with more force in a crib: the risk of entrapment arises where equipment leaves gaps of even a few inches between the therapy mattress and the head panel, foot panel and rails, and the equipment is not to be used when such gaps are present.

Joerns states the crib therapy mattress capacity as 250 lb. That figure is about the surface, not about the child, and in practice a crib surface is limited long before that by the crib itself and by the child outgrowing it. Where a child is close to the crib’s dimensions rather than its capacity, the pediatric therapy mattress on a bed frame is the next step and it is a conversation to have with the team before the crib becomes the limiting factor.

US crib size
29.5" (75 cm) W × 57" (145 cm) L × 5" (13 cm) D
International crib size
28" (71 cm) W × 50" (128 cm) L × 4" (10 cm) D
Capacity
250 lb (Joerns product page) — surface capacity; the crib frame has its own limit
Fitting
Measure the inside of the crib base, width and length, before ordering
Control unit
AutoVector®, 11.5" W × 12.5" H × 6" D, 10 lb (4.5 kg)
Battery backup
Sealed 12 VDC rechargeable; approximately 12 hours
Operating conditions
50–95 °F (10–35 °C), 30–75% RH non-condensing, IPX2

What makes it work at home

From 5 lb

Joerns states the pediatric system accommodates patients from 5 lb to 300 lb, with 5 lb as the system minimum. A surface that responds to how a body engages it needs to be built for a very small body, not adapted to one.

Two crib sizes, not one

US at 29.5 by 57 by 5 inches, International at 28 by 50 by 4. Seven inches of length apart. Measure the inside of the crib base before ordering, because a crib surface has to fill the crib.

Up to 300 lb on the pediatric mattress

The range reaches well past small children, covering adolescents and young adults still in pediatric services. Near the top of it, the adult configurations may also be appropriate; the team decides.

Nothing for a tired parent to set

Joerns states there is no need for direct intervention or manual entry to adjust comfort settings, because the AutoVector module monitors the support surface more than 100 times per second and re-optimizes as the child moves.

Approximately 12 hours of battery

A sealed 12 VDC rechargeable battery carries the control unit approximately 12 hours through a disconnection or an outage, and recharges when power returns. In a house running other equipment for a child, know where that sits in your outage plan.

Autofirm for care and procedures

Firm the surface for a change, a dressing or a line, and Joerns states it returns to the previous setting after approximately 15 minutes without anyone having to remember.

Delivery and setup

A pediatric order does not start until we have the frame or crib measured. For a crib we need the internal width and length at the base and the crib’s make; for a pediatric bed we need the frame make, model, deck size and its own rated load. We ask for the care team’s written specification too, because a pediatric discharge usually has one and because a surface arriving that does not match it costs a family a day they do not have. If the measurements point to the other crib size, or to a bed rather than a crib, we will say so before shipping rather than sending something that nearly fits.

At setup the therapy surface goes on the base, the AutoVector unit is placed where it cannot be reached from inside the crib and where the hoses run clear of the rails and any drop side, and the unit goes to a wall outlet of its own. In a house that is already running a feeding pump, a ventilator or suction, we go through the outlets with you rather than assuming there is a free one. The caregiver walkthrough covers the CPR valve, Autofirm and its timeout, the battery and the Storage Switch that Joerns says must be in the Battery On position for the battery to recharge, and the hand check Joerns instructs after any comfort adjustment — confirming by hand that the patient is not touching the mattress support platform. With a small child that check takes seconds and matters more, and we teach it to whoever is actually there at night.

How in-home setup and pickup work

Before we arrive

  • Measure the inside of the crib base, width and length — the two Joerns crib sizes are genuinely different.
  • For a pediatric bed, have the frame make, model, deck size and rated load.
  • Get the care team’s written specification for the surface before ordering.
  • Have the child’s current weight, and raise it with the team if it is at the light end of the range.
  • Count the outlets already in use for other equipment, and keep a dedicated one free.
  • Plan hose routing clear of crib rails, any drop side, and anywhere a sibling or a pet goes.
  • Keep the room within the 50–95 °F operating range and ask about it if the room runs warm.
  • Know where this surface sits in your outage plan alongside the child’s other equipment.

Choosing the right one

Crib or bed is the first fork, and it is decided by the child’s size against the crib’s internal dimensions rather than by the capacity figure. A crib therapy mattress comes in the US size at 29.5 by 57 by 5 inches and the International size at 28 by 50 by 4, and there is no adjusting either to fit a frame it was not made for. When a child is approaching the length of the crib, plan the move to a pediatric bed and its therapy mattress in advance, because doing it in a hurry after a skin problem appears is the worst version of that transition.

The second fork is between the pediatric system and the adult configurations, and it only arises at the upper end. The pediatric therapy mattress runs to 300 lb, which covers most adolescents; the adult standard and wide surfaces are rated 500 lb and the 48-inch bariatric 1,000 lb, on bed frames with their own limits. Where a patient could plausibly be on either, the decision is the clinical team’s and it usually turns on the bed and the care setup rather than on the surface. Bring us their answer and we will match the configuration to it.

Paying for the rental

Pediatric funding rarely runs through the route people expect. Medicare is an adult and disability benefit and its pressure-surface rules — the Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3 classification, with the powered codes E0277, E0371, E0372 and E0373 and the single air-fluidized code E0194 — are written around an adult beneficiary population. We do not bill Medicare, we do not submit claims for you, and in any case fluid immersion simulation has no HCPCS code of its own and Dolphin FIS is not an air-fluidized bed: E0194 is defined by warm filtered air forced through silicone-coated ceramic beads, a different technology. For a child, the routes that actually matter are usually a state Medicaid or CHIP program, a children’s waiver, a hospital or charitable fund, or a commercial plan with pediatric complex care provisions. We cannot tell you what any of those will do. What we can tell you is that they all want the same thing first: the clinical team’s documentation of why this surface, for this child, for how long.

On the private side, a mattress is a dual-purpose item and is not on a pre-approved HSA or FSA eligibility list on its own. A Letter of Medical Necessity from the child’s clinician — naming the condition, the item, why the item is needed for that condition and a duration — is the mechanism that changes that, and the plan administrator applies the IRS rules to the specific claim and decides. Not us. 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, because it is the clinician’s document and its value depends on that. If a complex care coordinator is involved, they usually know which of the child’s funding routes to try in which order, and that ordering matters more than anything we could add.

Insurance and funding guides

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
Request a callback Order desk and hours

More in bariatric & specialty configurations

$X,XXX–$Y,YYY/mo

Wide 42-Inch Dolphin FIS Mattress

The 42-inch-wide surface: more room across, the same 500 lb rated capacity.

Models: Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® FIS® Therapy Mattress, 42-inch

  • 42" × 82" × 10"
  • 500 lb rated
  • Seven inches wider across
Specs & details
$X,XXX–$Y,YYY/mo

Extra-Wide Bariatric Dolphin FIS Mattress

The 48-inch bariatric surface, rated to 1,000 lb on a matching frame.

Models: Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® FIS® Bariatric Therapy Mattress, 48-inch

  • 48" × 82" × 10"
  • 1,000 lb rated
  • Needs a matching bariatric frame
Specs & details
Call for a quote

Dolphin Wheelchair & Stretcher Seating Pads

Seated and transport fluid immersion pads for chairs and stretchers.

Models: Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Wheelchair Cushion · Joerns Healthcare Dolphin® Fluid Immersion Simulation® Stretcher Pad

  • Wheelchair cushion 17" × 17" × 4", 250 lb
  • Stretcher pad 36" × 76" × 5", 700 lb
Specs & details
Compare bariatric & specialty

Pediatric & Crib: common questions

How small a child can use the Dolphin pediatric system?
Joerns states the system accommodates patients from 5 lb to 300 lb, with 5 lb, or 2.3 kg, given as the pediatric system minimum. Whether it is appropriate for a particular child at the light end is a question for the pediatric team, and Joerns’ manual carries specific setup guidance for very light patients that belongs with the nurse or therapist commissioning the surface.
What size is the crib therapy mattress?
Joerns publishes two sizes. The US crib mattress is 29.5 inches wide by 57 inches long by 5 inches deep, or 75 by 145 by 13 cm. The International crib mattress is 28 inches by 50 inches by 4 inches, or 71 by 128 by 10 cm. They differ by seven inches in length, so measure the inside of the crib base before ordering rather than assuming which one you need.
What is the weight limit on the crib surface?
Joerns’ product page gives the crib figure as 250 lb. In practice the crib’s own limits, and the child outgrowing the crib’s dimensions, arrive long before that. Joerns’ standing footnote applies as well: a published capacity is the surface’s figure, and total weight must not exceed the frame manufacturer’s specified load capacity.
Does the pediatric surface work the same way as the adult ones?
The therapy principle and the control unit are the same. Joerns states the AutoVector control module monitors the support surface more than 100 times per second for any patient movement or surface changes, that the system measures the individual patient’s anthropometric characteristics as they engage it, and that there is no need for direct intervention or manual entry to adjust comfort settings. What differs is the size and the patient range, from 5 lb to 300 lb.
How warm can the room be?
We publish 50 to 95 °F, 10 to 35 °C, with 30 to 75 per cent relative humidity non-condensing, which is the operating range in Joerns’ current user-service manual. An older Joerns pediatric specification sheet prints a wider operating figure; where two Joerns documents differ we use the tighter and more recent one rather than the more flattering one. If the child’s room runs hot, raise it with us.
Will this heal my child’s pressure injury?
We cannot promise that and we will not imply it. Joerns describes the technology as highly effective for the prevention and healing of pressure injuries through Stage 4 and adds that its clinical indications are guidelines, to be taken only as recommendations for consideration during individual patient assessment by the clinician. Much pediatric skin damage is device-related, in which case the surface underneath is not the cause. Ask the pediatric wound nurse.
Can it go on the crib we already have at home?
Only if one of the two Joerns crib sizes fills it properly. Crib internal dimensions vary by manufacturer and market. Joerns states that the risk of entrapment arises where equipment leaves gaps of even a few inches between the therapy mattress and the head panel, foot panel and rails, and that the equipment is not to be used when such gaps are present. Measure the base inside the frame and send us both figures.
What do the pediatric and crib systems cost?
There is no published band for these configurations, so they are quoted. Rental and outright purchase are both possible, and for a child the duration is usually the deciding factor, since a growing child may move from a crib surface to a pediatric bed surface within the period you are planning for. Ask for both figures in writing with the configuration named.

Rent or buy the Pediatric & Crib

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.

Request a callback Request a Quote
Request a Callback Get a Quote