When a patient is brought to the hospital, he/she must often be transferred from a gurney or wheelchair onto an examination table. On shows such as ER, this often consists of counting to 3, swiftly moving the patient, and moving on. Real life, however, is not so pleasant. A quote from www.wral.com:
Hospitals have mechanisms that involve putting extremely overweight patients in a big sheet, lifted at the corners with straps, that picks them up and swings them over to a table
That’s an interesting image. This is a problem that can only be solved by Dr. Willis Martin’s ingenious, yet poorly named product, the Chair-A-Table (pronounced charitable?). While it doesn’t sound cool, medical, or gadgety in the least, it is a pretty nifty invention. Check out this blurb from The Rocky Mountain Telegram:
…”Obesity is a big problem,” he said. “For example, 300 out of 900 obese patients will weigh more than 300 pounds.
“A nurse lifts about 1.8 tons per shift. Nurses’ aides, licensed practical nurses and orderlies will lift 5 tons per shift and that causes in excess of 95,000 wheelchair accidents a year.”
People are getting heavier – probably 10 percent per year, Martin said. Workers’ compensation is in excess of $1 billion for health care workers injured lifting patients, he said.
…The challenge of moving patients is eliminated with Martin’s Chair-A-Table.
“It’s the only one in the world,” he said. “If a patient is wheeled in from a car to the examination room, that patient would normally have to leave the chair to get on the table.
“With the Chair-A-Table, they never get out of their chair. They’re never moved.”
Why not call it Chable, or Tabchair or maybe even Hyper Obese Transforming Lifting Machine? Well anyways, until the Chable is commercially available, it would probably be prudent not to ask a nurse to help you move.
Check out an adrenaline-pumping video of the Chair-A-Table in action!
Read the whole article here…