The annual Holiday Festival is the major fundraising event for the many programs supported by the Rice Health Foundation. The gala event begins on Friday night with music and a social hour. Following dinner, a lively live auction takes place, while a silent auction is available throughout the evening. The festival continues on Saturday, and includes a holiday luncheon buffet, table setting fair, entertainment, shopping, and door prizes.

Every year, a healthcare-related program is chosen by the planning committee to receive the festival proceeds. The Holiday Festival Volunteer Committee selected the Upgrading of Beds for Patient & Staff Safety as the beneficiary of the 2010 Holiday Festival event proceeds. It is our hope and desire, that together, we can have a major impact on direct patient care and the safety of both patients and caregivers.

Working together to improve patient comfort
and staff safety

This year's proceeds will be used to purchase specialized equipment for transporting patients that will help prevent injuries to healthcare professionals, and special mattresses that will help prevent injuries to patients.

In 2010, Rice Hospital will purchase several new patient beds (four beds in the Intensive Care Unit, nine birthing beds in Women's and Children Care, and 40 beds in Adult Health Care). A team of caregivers was formed to explore and investigate state of the art applications that could influence how the money for new beds would be spent.

Many proactive features on beds now emphasize prevention of injuries to patients and staff. Careful selection of the advanced tools to add to new beds and stretchers will pay enormous dividends into the future. Supporting the purchase of technology that helps patients and staff in every care unit is a magnificent undertaking!

Saving one patient from having a painful pressure sore, saving one healthcare worker from a career-ending injury, is a wonderful mission.

Motorized units are now available for beds and stretchers, virtually eliminating the risk of back injuries to employees. Intelli-drive units (motorized drive) will be purchased so the bed is powered tomove; the healthcare worker "drives" the bedridden patient through the halls rather than "pushing" them.

Modules that work under and within the mattress will be purchased so critically ill patients can be auto-rotated gently from one side to the other without nurses pushing and pulling to turn them.

A mattress module will be purchased that will provide gentle lung percussion for patients with severe breathing disorders. The pulsating mattress beneath the patient loosens secretions for drainage.

For patients who are at risk for skin breakdown, we can purchase special mattresses that provide the appropriate airflow therapy for the individual to prevent skin breakdown.