Practical pearls
A few tips to get the
most out of stretcher
chairs:
• You might need to
purchase foot exten-
ders for your taller
patients.
• Make sure your stretcher chair is durable. Some electronic chairs
have a remote-control unit that you can detach and set in the patient's
lap. Check to see that the remote can withstand being sat on by the
patient, or dropped onto the floor by patients or staff.
• A rechargeable lithium-ion battery should last 2 years. A battery
should last you an entire day. Have a battery on the bed and a backup
battery in each room. Change your batteries out every morning and
always have one in the charger. Our battery only takes 3.5 hours to
charge from empty to full. You should also keep 2 extra batteries in
the OR as an emergency backup. Our units come with a power cord
that can be used in place of the battery for uninterrupted operation.
Staff could struggle shifting from old stretchers to newer stretcher
chairs. The chairs are fundamentally different than the stretchers —
they don't move the same, sometimes the patients don't look comfort-
able without the extenders and staff have to learn how to position the
patients properly in the chair. But in the end, it's all about making
patients feel comfortable and at ease throughout their procedure, and
creating a more positive and safer experience for them and your
team.
OSM
4 0 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J U N E 2 0 1 9
Programmable, motorized stretcher
chairs are the Swiss Army knives of
surgery, transforming from seat to stretcher
to table to recovery recliner as you wheel
patients from pre-op to the OR to PACU.
Ms. Wiltshire (vwiltshire@sighttrust.com) is vice president and chief operating
officer at the SightTrust Eye Institute Surgery Center in Sunrise, Fla.
