A system for determining a location of a patient on a hospital bed comprising:at least onedeformation sensor adapted to generate a signal indicative of a deformation ofa frame of thebed a location determination unit for determining a lateral and/orlongitudinal location of thepatient based on the deformation of the frame. A method for monitoring an exitof a patientfrom a hospital bed comprising: determining a patient location on the bedbased on measureddeformation and generating an alarm signal if the determined location isoutside apredetermined area. A weight sensing system for a hospital bed having a basewith asuspended frame suspended from a fixed frame comprising: a load sensorconnecting thesuspended frame and the fixed frame via a suspension member which is unsecuredfrom thefixed frame to allow free vertical movement of the suspended frame relative tothe fixedframe.
