Bariatric Beds

Do you have ceiling lifts in your icu? What about floor lifts? You can tilt easily with lifts and slings to prevent skin breakdown. You can also use limb slings for the pannus if you have them. If not, sheets work pretty well for holding back skin folds. I don't know of any specific rotating beds.

Do you have access to low air loss mattresses?

Sizewise and Stryker make these beds. They are expensive. We are lucky enough to have Sizewise down the street and they respond within 2 hours when we need any specialty bed. We lease them on a prn basis. Staff and the patient both could be hurt if the bed is not appropriate to the patient.

Wow, that's rough. We can get rotating bariatric beds with LAL mattresses, but what I was told is they're not a substitute for turning. The rotating feature is more for pulmonary hygiene than for the skin. Most of our rooms have ceiling lifts, and lots of times we'll put a full-body sling under the pt, hook one side of the sling to the lift, lift that one side several inches, and stick the pillows under the pt. I don't know how well we're actually offloading...when someone is so heavy they pretty much flatten the pillows. Just do the best you can, and also don't hesitate to get the help of every available staff member--even if it means you have to wait until they can all spare five minutes.