Nursing executives with Northeast Alabama Regional Medical Center (RMC) today announced the purchase of more than 235 new state-of-the-art inpatient medical/surgical patient beds for the 338-bed Anniston facility. The new VersaCare© beds are provided by Hill-Rom, a worldwide manufacturer and provider of medical technologies and related services for the health care industry.
A total of 235 beds were purchased as part of the overall contract, with 30 beds scheduled to arrive at the hospital on Tuesday, July 7th. Complete in-service training for the clinical staff begins next week. The remaining beds will be delivered in stages as they are produced by Hill-Rom during FY2016 and FY2017, according to Elaine Davis, R.N., Chief Nursing Officer and VP of Patient Services.
Ideal for mid to high-acutiy patients, VersaCare beds are integrated with a host of safety-promoting, leading-edge technologies controlled through a simple, intuitive interface. Key features of note on the new VersaCare beds include: a 3-level Bed Exit Alarm with advanced sensitivity to help reduce patient falls related to unsupervised bed egress; SafeView® Alerts running lights to give caregivers improved visual of key conditions of the bed; and Skin-safety surfacing to mitigate pressure, shear, friction and moisture – all factors that contribute to pressure ulcers on patients.
These new state-of-the-art inpatient beds are vital to bolstering RMC’s mission to provide the highest quality health care for patients and fulfill a promise made to clinical teams to provide an ergonomically safe environment that reduces strain placed on them during patient care, said Chris Word, RN Nurse Manager Observation/8W, one of the RMC team members who was part of the review committee that assisted in the inpatient bed selection process.
“Every day our caregivers have increased demands to elevate the safety and standards of care for our patients,” said Word. “The ergonomic design of these beds with optimal low bed-height technology capabilities will free caregivers from some of the physical demanding labor involved with constant patient repositioning so that our nursing teams can focus on helping patients heal, while continuing to comply with all of our clinical safety protocols.”
As part of this purchase, a new Hill-Rom NaviCare® nurse call system will also be considered to compliment the new VersaCare beds. The old inpatient beds will be “traded-in” to Hill-Rom with several beds being donated to Jacksonville State University’s clinical simulation lab on the campus of RMC Jacksonville.