Aintree University Hospital
Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust serves a community of 330,000 people across the north of Merseyside, providing comprehensive tertiary services to the wider population of the North West of England. With 950 in-patient beds, the successful Foundation Trust was awarded a level 3 NHS Litigation Authority Award in June 2009 and at the time was only the eleventh Foundation Trust in the country to meet this standard.
The vision of the Trust is “to be a provider of high quality, patient-centred healthcare with a first class local, national and international reputation.” One of the key priorities within this vision has been to ensure the Foundation Trust continues to promote patient safety and dignity through the provision of new equipment. As a result of large-scale investment, the Trust now boasts 650 Hill-Rom® AvantGuard™ electric profiling beds and 40 Liko™ patient lifting systems.
Following the comprehensive evaluation of beds from several European manufacturers, the Trust chose to invest in the Hill-Rom® AvantGuard™ 1225 electric profiling bed as its standard model. Standing out due to its ease of use and wealth of features, the AvantGuard™ 1225 electric profiling bed meets all the clinical requirements of the wards.
In addition, the Hill-Rom® AvantGuard™ 1600 electric profiling bed has been purchased for the hospital’s Critical Care unit, where a higher specification technical bed was required. When making the final purchasing decisions, advantages such as the minimum ten year life expectancy and excellent after care service including full training for the in-house maintenance team led to the Foundation Trust being confident and comfortable with the range of Hill-Rom® AvantGuard™ electric profiling beds.
Aintree University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has also been investing in Liko™ hoists for the past seven years, and currently has 40 mobile units. The Trust has recently completed the purchase and installation of three full overhead tracking systems within a refurbished ward for people with respiratory conditions. Previously, using the alternative mobile gantry systems, staff would have to reduce bed capacity in a ward bay when hoisting bariatric patients. This requirement has now been eliminated with the installation of the overhead systems, and bariatric patients can now be effortlessly transferred from their bed through to the bathroom and toilet in one smooth movement. Not only does this reduce the number of staff required but increases the patient’s level of dignity which is highly regarded within the Trust’s values of compassion, dignity and respect for all.
“The Hill-Rom® electric profiling beds and Liko™ hoists have without doubt met the Trust’s objectives around Quality and Safety by improving the working and care environments for staff and patients. Overall, we are extremely happy with the standard of equipment from Hill-Rom® used on the Aintree site and having one point of contact for beds and hoists certainly reduces the amount of time I have to invest when advising on purchases” commented Ken Cookson.
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