Cardiff & Vale University Health Board adopts innovative approach for bed replacement
Cardiff and Vale University Health Board is replacing 750 beds and mattresses across its sites in order to address its ageing fleet of products, as well as improve care for the ageing population of patients. The new beds and mattresses will be supplied and managed by the UK’s only independent provider of bed management services to the NHS, Medstrom Healthcare.
The implementation marks Cardiff and Vale as the first Heath Board in the country to utilise the combination of P.R.O. Matt Plus semi-dynamic surfaces and MMO 5000 ultra-low beds. The benefits of the semi-dynamic surfaces include Pressure Redistribution Optimisation (P.R.O.) technology, which replicates the surface profile of a therapeutic air mattress and requires no manual inflation, providing benefits to both patients and staff.
Denise Shanahan, consultant nurse for older and vulnerable adults at Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, endorses the benefits of ultra-low beds with split side rails: “We worked with Medstrom to increase the fleet of high-low beds within the Cardiff and Vale region, whilst also looking at opportunities to improve bed rails. In a bed with full rails, patients can become agitated, so the design of split bed rails was essential to reduce risk and improve patient comfort and confidence. This increased patient confidence comes from a much more flexible approach, with patients feeling and being less restricted thanks to the split bed rail design.
“Given my role working with older adults and those with dementia, the bed changes were something I felt very strongly about. Medstrom shares my passion for patient safety and comfort, which made them the perfect partner in delivering this solution to the Health Board.”
In addition to improvement in patient care, the staff will also reap benefits from the bed implementation. Rachel Apsey, Sales and Marketing Director for Medstrom comments:
“With patient care, safety and comfort remaining our primary focus, Medstrom also helps our customers ease the pressure on staff with products that require minimal manual intervention, as well as bed management services that help increase efficiency and reduce cost.
“In the case of Cardiff and Vale UHB, Medstrom helped aid them at a time when there was a real need to pay attention to the ever-increasing ageing population. We were pleased to have worked with the Health Board to co-develop a solution that met their specific needs and improved the well being of their patients and staff.”
Commenting further on the Health Board’s bed implementation, Dr. Linda Walker, Surgery Clinical Board Director of Nursing for Cardiff and Vale UHB added:
“With an ageing population comes the need for higher quality, more clinically effective products, thus the need to standardise our beds and mattresses to ensure all patients are cared for at the highest standard on a consistent basis. We have utilised P.R.O Matt Therapy across several hospitals and could see the benefit of implementing these surfaces across the Health Board. That combined with the innovative design of split rails on the ultra-low beds, provided us with a reliable approach in caring for our patient population.”
