Measuring Weight/height in ED routinely

[reholi4]

good evening,

i would just like to find out if your emergency departments measure weight/height on all patients coming into the emergency department.

in my experience we only need to measure weight in chilideren as all treatments are based on weight.

your comments will be appreciated.

thanks,

[emtb2rn, BSN, RN, EMT-B]

We try to weigh every pt coming in. We have 2 floor scales, 1 in triage and 1 in the main area. Just step on and weight is displayed within 10 seconds. The main area scale is large enough for a stretcher. All of our wheelchairs have been weighed and have the weight listed on the back. All of our stretchers have been weighed and have that info shown on front and back of stretcher. Pretty easy to get a weight. And yes, sometimes we still have to guesstimate those esi level 1's....

We also have an infant scale and old school ht/wt combo scale for the kids.

[nuangel1, BSN, RN]

we ask a height and weight of are adult pts .we ask parents for the child weight .if weight in doubt we weigh .the only time we weigh and adult is if needs tpa/heparin etc .since wt based drug.

[roses1130j]

My ED also always obtains a weight on infants and children under age of 12. In triage, it's important to critically think ahead what may be in store for the patient. If its an obese 60 year old women c/o RT lower extremity pain with errythemia, warmth, and edema, no trauma, lets go ahead and double check his weight. I had a patient just last week I was starting on heparin for DVT whom had a stated weight of 150 pounds, when weighed was 130. The difference decreased his bolus by 2500units and rate/hr by 5-6ml/hr.

My ER also invested in a handful of new stretchers with scales, but it seems like every patient that needs a weight, and is like 300 lbs and immobile, is never on one of these stretchers. LOL. I think it would be much safer if every patient had a documented actual weight, but at times it's just not feasible when the patient is already pulled back to a room. With a chair scale in triage, what does it take to just zero the scale with each new patient and throw a weight in.

[JessicaSN]

Part of our triage is getting a height and weight on everyone. I weigh all children; I don't trust the parents to know how much their kid weighs. We get estimates from the adults.