Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Medical Weighing Scales Guidelines


As a result of recent findings found here: Cheap Hospital Scales Put Lives in Danger, LACORS has highlighted several recommendations to help NHS bodies have a better understanding of how medical weighing scales can be used within hospitals for the benefit of both hospital and patient.
LACORS recommends that each hospital should have one dedicated department will oversee the purchase, maintenance and repair of all medical scales.
This should include:
  • Basic training for staff that need to use medical scales.
  • Purchase of medical weighing scales to Class III specifications or above.
  • Regular testing of weighing equipment to ensure that accuracy is maintained.
  • Instant removal of inaccurate or faulty medical scales from service.
  • Medical scales should be able to display weight in a metric format.
Geoffrey Theobald from LACORS said, “We hope the NHS will work with trusts nationally to ensure that the necessary changes are made to help safeguard patient care.”
A repeat inspection of medical weighing scales within hospitals will be carried out in Spring 2009.

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Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Cheap Hospital Scales Putting Lives in Danger

NHS patients are being put in danger because some hospitals are weighing patients on household scales purchased from the high street, a recent investigation by LACORS has revealed.

After inspecting 8,000 sets of weighing scales in over 200 hospitals across the UK, Trading Standards Officers discovered that many hospitals were using standard household or bathroom scales that are unsuitable for medical use.
One third of all hospital scales tested was found to be inaccurate and in danger of putting patients health at risk. In one such case a four-year-old cancer patient could have been given a harmful dose of radiation after being weighed on bathroom scales that incorrectly indicated the child had gained weight.

Key findings:
  • One in six hospitals have trained staff in the basic use of weighing equipment.
  • One in five scales were not set to zero before weighing patients.
  • Four out of ten scales were Class IV which lead to inaccurate measurement.
Lacors chairman Geoffrey Theobald commented: "Accurate weight readings for patients could be a matter of life and death."
For hospital and medical use it is only recommendeing that high quality Class III medical scales are used.

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

Hospital Weighing Scales - Government Warning

The Department of Health has issued a recent warning to highlight potential dangers of weighing patients and medication on incorrectly calibrated scales.

Following an audit of several NHS organisations by LACORS, (The Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services). Say that many hospitals were using incorrectly calibrated weighing scales for weighing patients or medication. Hospital staff were also observed using inappropriate weighing scales, unsuitable for medical applications.

As a result of these findings, NHS organisations are being warned to ensure that patient weighing scales are regularly maintained and calibrated, and that they have a procedure in place to check the accuracy of their weighing equipment.

The following two types of weighing scales are used in hospitals and NHS organisations:
  • Class III – accurate scales used for weighing medication, babies and monitoring purposes.
  • Class IIII – less accurate, domestic type scales. Should only be used for checking a patient’s weight in a GP consulting room.

Important points to remember:
  • Class IIII scales are NOT recommended for weighing medication, treatment, diagnosis or monitoring and should be replaced with more accurate Class III type scales.
  • Weighing equipment that provides incorrect readings should be removed from use and re-calibrated.

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