Care technology
Weighing care residents with limited mobility
Weighing scale manufacturer Marsden has spent the past three years bringing to market a new type of raisable chair scale to meet the needs of care residents with limited mobility
Body weight can be the first, the clearest or the only indication of poor health. According to a BAPEN (British Association For Parenteral And Enteral Nutrition) survey, for example, 42 per cent of those admitted to care homes are at risk of malnutrition - and a weight reading can help detect this. Typically, a chair scale is the most common weighing solution found in care homes. As a wheelchair with an in-built weighing scale, a chair scale allows individuals to be seated during the weighing process.
Just like with any wheelchair, however, the risks and challenges present themselves when getting the individual in and out of the chair. The process can be stressful for the resident, and care professionals are at risk of
musculoskeletal injury when performing each manoeuvre.
It is not a localised problem either. Every day, carers in care homes around the world perform the same procedure in order to weigh residents.
So, how can the weighing process be made easier? The answer - with considerable input from healthcare professionals, medical device experts and back care specialists - has arrived from Marsden, a UK-based weighing scale manufacturer that has supplied the care
Finished M-250 chair scale
home industry for more than a quarter of a century.
Unique concept
“Most care homes know that they need to weigh residents. Most will buy chair scales because they’re the most convenient,” said Marsden national account manager Paul McCaig. “That’s not to say they don’t think there could be an easier way to weigh a resident.” McCaig, who has worked with care homes and care home supplies companies for ten years, was a key player in the development process of a solution for easier weighing of residents with limited mobility.
Marsden is the largest supplier of
After several care homes highlighted the risks and challenges associated with weighing residents with limited mobility, Marsden began looking for a solution
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medical weighing scales to the NHS, and has supplied care homes with weighing equipment for over 25 years. After several care homes highlighted the risks and challenges associated with weighing residents with limited mobility, Marsden began looking for a solution.
“A chair scale means the resident can be seated during weighing,” said McCaig. “They can also be taken to the resident, so weighing can take place anywhere. We knew chair scales were the place to start looking for a solution.”
Marsden’s product development team drew up early concepts of a chair scale with crucial help from healthcare professionals and medical device design specialists PD-M.
Marsden operation director Mark Coates headed up the team that took those initial concepts from drawings to reality.
“We wanted to create something that felt familiar as a weighing device, was simple to use and - and this was the most important element - made the weighing processes far easier and reduced risk of
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com • January 2021
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