Vario Safe system scores points in practice

In the house Abendfrieden in Bielefeld the new care bed Libra is being tested

Visitors to our booth at the Altenpflege geriatric care fair in Nuremberg agreed: With the new Vario Safe system, Stiegelmeyer has achieved an important innovation that will make life in many nursing homes easier. For beds with Vario Safe, the elements of the split safety sides, the side panels and the head and footboards can be attached and removed without tools. This allows the bed to be completely redesigned in a very short time depending on the needs of the resident.

How does this system work in practice? Is a bed alteration often necessary in everyday life? Do care staff get along well with the patented locking devices? Such questions are examined with great attention by Stiegelmeyer's product management. For months now, beds have been field-tested with the Vario Safe system. Selected nursing homes use them in their normal bed stock – with all the requirements and burdens of daily nursing tasks. Customer reports provide us with valuable feedback to continually improve our products.

On a nice warm spring day, we drive up to the house Abendfrieden, situated in the district Bethel above the roofs of Bielefeld. Here, a Stiegelmeyer bed of the Libra model is tested with Vario Safe. Nursing manager Anna Kyora takes the time to talk with us about the field test.

Practical alteration

Since January, the Libra is in use in Bethel – was it ever altered at this time? Yes, Ms. Kyora explains: "The first resident who used the bed needed the safety sides. Then there was a switch, and the current resident does not need them. That's why we currently use only the head-side elements with 90 cm in length. We have removed the foot-side elements. "Many residents would appreciate head-end safety sides for a good sense of protection and orientation. "With the safety sides of the Libra, I also think it's nice to be able to pull it up in two steps and therefore also use it at the lower level. That's enough for many people."

The tool-less Vario Safe system was already convincing: "We no longer need an in-house engineer to reconstruct everything," explains Ms. Kyora. In the previous bed models with fixed mounted safety sides that happens quite often. With Vario Safe, on the other hand, care staff would find the orange-colored locking devices effortless and could easily operate them themselves.

More flexibility for safety sides

In principle, the nursing manager at house Abendfrieden currently sees less demand for safety sides: "The care beds from Stiegelmeyer can be adjusted so low that this often suffices for fall prevention. If necessary, we put a fall protection mat in front of the bed. "Therefore, she could imagine using Vario Safe beds with side panels and a reduced stock of safety side elements, which would then be installed quickly on a case-by-case basis. "That way we could also save storage space," she explains.

How useful are the tool-free removable head and footboards in everyday life? "I can imagine that they are very helpful – for example, when a bedridden resident is about to attend a hairdressing appointment," says Ms. Kyora. "Hair washing and hair cutting would then be easier."

House Abendfrieden, with its 78 beds, has an interesting history: it was originally a house where the deaconesses of the Sarepta Sisterhood retired. "For some years now, however, we also accept Bielefeld citizens because the number of deaconesses is decreasing," says Ms. Kyora. Currently there are about 30 sisters living in the nursing area. Living together with the new residents – including two men – is very harmonious. In the future, the move from the historic building to a new building is planned. In the house Abendfrieden, meaning ‘evening peace’ in German, a morning mood prevails.