barriatric transfers

[adrienurse, LPN]

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[bethin]

Have you looked into bariatric lifts? They are expensive but I think the facility would be more concerned about the patient and the employees safety than the cost. Also, you might try calling bariatric hospitals and see what they use to lift their patients.

[muffie, RN]

what's the max on hoyers/maxilifts ?

500 lb ?

[bethin]

what's the max on hoyers/maxilifts ?

500 lb ?

I think ours is 350 which I've often been leery of using on larger patients. And I know our scale only goes to 300lbs so if a patient needed surgery I don't know what we would do. We have one frequent flier who weights 800lbs.

Now that I think of it, we do rent a bed from Hill Rom for this patient. I don't know if you have them in Canada, but they are a HUGE business in the US. Might check with them and see what they have. I imagine they would have more than just beds for bariatric pts. It usually takes a day for us to receive a bed but then our hospital is about 30 mins from the main factory.

[adrienurse, LPN]

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[muffie, RN]

kudos to you aids for trying to get the best for your pt

[vampiregirl, BSN, RN]

I understand budget issues... but if patient and employee safety are involved, is there another department such as risk managment or safety that could advocate for the proper equipment?

[Fiona59]

I have a friend who works on a unit that does bariatric surgeries. Believe it or not, they do not have lifts. The patient returns from the OR on a bariatric bed, the hospital owns them. Her unit has been trying to get a lift but no joy. Sometimes, they manage to get extra staff assigned to the unit when they have three+ bariatrics (they can use up to five people to turn them....)

There is no good answer to this question. The health authority controls the cash and ultimately will pay when the staff go off with injuries.

[adrienurse, LPN]

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