WHEELING — WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital recently invested in all new beds and several new pieces of technology in an effort to pour back into their patients and staff.

Now, nearly every patient room in the hospital will be seeing an upgrade from beds in the Intensive Care Unit to stretchers in the Post-Anesthesia Care Unit and Vertical Care.

New IV pumps have also been installed hospital-wide, said Vice President of Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer Jennifer Riley.

“[The beds will be] much more comfortable for our patients, of course, so they can at least heal a little bit and rest while they’re here with us,” Riley said.

The new and improved beds have an air loss feature, which will make getting in and out of bed much easier for patients who may struggle with mobility.

“So if you’re a person that can’t really get in and out of bed it will automatically adjust for air loss with you. If you are a high fall risk we can put it in the lowest position for you,” Riley said.

The beds now have the capability to adapt to connect to wifi or bluetooth call light systems. WVU Medicine also invested in upgrades to the hospital-wide phone system for nurses.

These new investments have been in the works for around a year, Riley said.

“Really we had the support of everyone,” she said. “We had the support of our president and our Chief Financial Officer, everyone, knowing that when you are financially stable, which we are very fortunate to be right now, you want to reinvest in your community, in your patients, in your staff.”

Riley said she wants patients to know that the upgrades are a result of the hospital prioritizing patient comfort and care.

“We want to make sure that [patients] have the most comforting area that they can have while they’re healing so it’s important for them to know that we want to put that money back into them and into our nurses so that they have what they need to take really great care of our patients,” she said.

In regards to the recent closure of East Ohio Regional Hospital across the river in Martins Ferry — which healthcare professionals have said is likely to cause greater patient loads at other local hospitals — Riley said WVU Wheeling Medicine is prepared to provide care.

“I think what I want everyone to know is that WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital is very strong, we are here ready to take care of patients, so if they are in need they should come to us. Whether that’s outpatient or inpatient or pharmacy we are here to take care of our community and we are 100% ready to do that,” Riley said.

Because the WVU Medicine system is a nonprofit, when there are extra dollars available, they are utilized to make improvements to the facility or benefit the staff and patients, WVU Medicine Marketing and Communications Director Phillip Carl said.

“Any time there are above-and-beyond dollars available it always goes back into the hospital and the people,” Carl said.