Five questions for Matthias Hill, Director of Nursing at Evangelical Hospital Enger

Matthias Hill is Nursing Director and Quality Officer at the Evangelical Hospital Enger, a specialist clinic for geriatrics with 73 beds. He has been working with Stiegelmeyer products for many years, and the clinic's new extension was also equipped with Puro beds and Quado bedside cabinets.

Mr Hill, please introduce yourself.

I have been working here in Enger for 25 years. I started as a nurse, became ward manager, went to postgraduate school, became deputy head of nursing and today I am the director of nursing. My tasks include quality development, personnel planning and clinic management. Therapists and nursing staff are assigned to me. I was intensively involved in the development of the design of the new extension.

Do you still work in daily nursing care?

No, but of course I go to the wards, talk to the patients and give advice to colleagues. I am present at our daily meetings and organise regular staff training.

In the new extension you use our hospital bed Puro with full-length safety sides. Why did you choose this model?

We have also had some experience with split safety sides, but ultimately we are convinced by the ease of use and the good hygiene properties of the full-length safety side – it can be cleaned thoroughly by hand. Safety sides are not a problematic issue for us; the patients decide for themselves whether they want to use them or not. Diagonal positioning of the bars is also popular. The lowest position of the Puro of approx. 30 cm also helps us with fall prevention. The visual appearance of the bed also played a role in the selection. The architects wanted a special wood finish for the head and footboards that would match the interior design exactly. Stiegelmeyer made this possible.

What convinced you about the Quado bedside cabinet?

We did not want voluminous bedside cabinets that take up so much space in the room. The Quado is completely sufficient for the daily needs on our wards. The fact that it is so light and easy to move around pleases the nursing staff and patients alike – they just push it to where they need it.

What do you wish for the hospital bed of the future?

We are very interested in digital support and documentation, e.g. we want to know when a patient gets up. Such systems already exist, but they should be less complicated. The information should simply feed into the existing hospital system. I don't want to have countless different computer programmes, each of which requires its own training and a huge amount of effort. The technical conditions in our hospital are given, we have wi-fi everywhere, for example. So keep us informed if you have something interesting to offer.

We'll definitely do that!