turers say they can upgrade the width to 28 inches or more for an
added price.
2
How do you operate the chair?
Another decision you'll need to make is whether you'll go with
manual chairs that use hand cranks and levers to position
patients, or those that are electrically controlled or run off batteries.
Battery-powered chairs make positioning patients for surgery easier, as
they allow for fine-tuned adjustments and require little effort from
your staffers. "They're very easy for the staff to control the movement,"
says Ms. Getlan. "For patients, it's good, too, because the movement
between positions is smooth rather than sharp."
Ms. Looker notes that battery-powered chairs make it easy for geri-
atric patients to get in and out. "You can put them in a sitting position,
have the patient sit down and then recline it back," she says. "You
don't have to pull a handle or pump it to make it go back down or up."
Some models come with 2 batteries: While one's in use, the other's
recharging. If you're considering a battery-operated model, look at
both the maintenance requirements and battery life, says Ms. Looker.
"Batteries on my chairs last the whole day," she says. "We charge
them overnight. But if you're pushing these things in and out of the
OR, you probably won't want to take time to plug and unplug them
throughout the day."
Jeannine Arcuri, BSN, administrator of the Cleveland Eye and Laser
Surgery Center in Fairview Park, Ohio, says her center stocks both a
battery-operated version and a conventional hand-crank one to give
nurses more options. Overall, they provide the same basic functions,
she says, but the battery-operated tables require a bit more upkeep.
"The only downfall: If a battery goes down, you might have to charge it
in the middle of the case," she says.
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