PATRAN® Use for Children’s/Pediatric Hospitals
There are many adult-sized patients in a children’s hospital, making safe patient handling as important as in a typical acute care hospital setting. Children are getting larger with obesity on the rise. In addition, while the mentally and emotionally preteens and teenagers are still children, physically many are full-grown. Add on to that the number of adults who were born with congenital heart and other diseases that continue to see their pediatric doctors.
Children also get scared, tend to have a lower threshold for pain and can become disoriented due to medication in the hospital. The PATRAN® can be inserted without having to log-roll the patient or even reaching under them. Using a PATRAN can result in more comfortable moves, for instance from a cart to radiology table or an emergency department stretcher to hospital bed. The PATRAN allows caregivers to reposition young patients on CT and MRI machines and boost or turn them in bed.
For the medically fragile or physically disabled patients, the PATRAN alone can make moving a patient easier. Some hospitals put fragile young patients on air transfer mats. Using the PATRAN to slide the air mat under a patient or adjust the mat as the child moves off it can prove very helpful.
Tragically, serious accidents happen every day that harm children and require rehabilitation. Those early mobility exercises become less taxing mentally and physically when a PATRAN is involved. Early progress, even assisted, can result in emotional benefits that motivate further physical achievements.
The traditional PATRAN at a size of 36-inches by 72-inches works for most patients, but there is a smaller size available. The PATRANxs measures 39-inches by 36-inches.