Hospital beds get the full Seymour Powell treatment

Seymour Powell has evolved the design of traditional healthcare beds with an innovative prototype that also converts into a chair.

The industrial design group has created a radical range of beds for healthcare manufacturer Huntleigh Healthcare. Called Enterprise Electric Profiling Hospital Bed Range, the products incorporate a softer, friendlier aesthetic and feature a less cumbersome design than is the norm for healthcare beds. Seymour Powell was appointed to the project in 2005 and director Dick Powell headed up the design team.

Orders have been placed from hospitals and healthcare organisations across Europe and Northern America, according to a Seymour Powell spokeswoman.

The revolutionary design features a frame made from a tubular chassis with blow mouldings fitted across its sides, head and footboards. Hand cut-outs on the bed allow for easy grip. It also helps when the bed has to be serviced, cleaned and dismantled.

The bed converts into a chair, with the safety sides able to pivot, so they don’t have to be removed, like other healthcare beds.

The beds also feature a patented Bio-Contour system that provides improved pressure reduction, helping to minimise the risk of patients developing bed sores.

Patient controls are integrated into the bed’s overall design, allowing improved control for getting in and out.

‘The design has been based around several years of intensive research in which the whole hospital environment was taken into consideration,’ says Geoff Cox, group managing director at Huntleigh Healthcare. ‘In addition to the needs of patients and their direct carers, the requirements of engineers, porters and cleaning staff were also addressed. Risk management, ease of use and servicing were key factors in the development thought process.’

THE ENTERPRISE ELECTRIC PROFILING HOSPITAL BEDS

• Low height – 30cm, helps reduce risk of patient falls
• Bio-Contour – helps reduce risk of pressure ulcer development
• Infection control – designed with the aim of being the easiest in the world to clean and decontaminate
• Moving and handling – hand cut-outs for easy-grip, lightweight design