Home Medical Supply Safety Tips - Health - Medicine

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<p>It is hard for everyone to admit when a person is no longer able to function at the level they were previously capable of. It is easy to keep doing things as you always have, but failure to recognize when better safety measures are necessary is dangerous. When tasks become difficult or the situation deteriorates, recognize that it is time to make better arrangements for safety.1. Secure wheelchairs every time the patient gets in or out. It is quite easy to fall into the habit of helping someone in and out of a wheelchair without locking it when you are on the level surface of the home or hospital floor. While this works a large portion of the time, between 45% and 90% of all adult wheelchair injuries occurred in the home or hospital, according to recent research conducted by Ohio State University. Secure the wheelchair each and every time the patient gets in or out of the chair.2. Keep floors free of wet spots, sticky spots and debris. According to OSHA, slips and falls ar
e second only to car accidents as a leading cause of injury and death in the United States. Most of these accidents are preventable. It only takes a few minutes to stop and clean a spot on the floor, but one may never recover from the injuries caused by a slip and fall accident. If the area is prone to slipperiness, add non- skid adhesive strips to keep everyone safe and injury- free. Non- skid adhesive strips are available at nurse supply stores with bath safety products.3. Use hand holds in showers and tubs, and install new ones if they are broken or inadequate. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 244,000 people slip and fall in their bathrooms every year and require treatment at a hospital. These statistics do not even include injuries sustained in the bathroom that did not require medical treatment (but probably did include scratches, bruises and some pain). Properly installed and used hand holds, slip guards and other bathroom safety devices could prevent
many of these injuries. These safety products are available where nurse supplies and nursing scrubs are sold.4. Discard mercury thermometers and replace them with digital thermometers. Vapors from a broken mercury thermometer are toxic. Do not just toss them in the trash. Contact your local hazardous waste authorities to find out the safe and legal way to dispose of the thermometer. Cleanup of a broken mercury thermometer is important or the toxic metal continues to be a danger. The symptoms of mercury poisoning are neurological, and can mimic a stroke causing a delay in critical treatment. Quality digital thermometers are available in nurse supplies stores.5. Know when it is time to move from a regular bed to a hospital bed with hand rails. According to the NHS Information Center in Great Britain, over 20,000 people are treated in British hospitals each year after falling out of bed. Many of these falls can be prevented with the proper, regular use of bed rails. If the pat
ient does not want to move from their bed to a hospital bed, you can get bed rails to fit standard bed sizes in nurse supplies stores.Nurse supplies such as non-slip adhesive strips, bathroom hand holds, digital thermometers, bed rails, nursing scrubs, shoe covers, disposable lab coats and other nursing supplies are available online with all of the other supplies you need to do your job.</p>

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