Page 27 - Mobility Management, March 2017

By Laurie Watanabe
It is not the most glamorous topic, those other surfaces that complex rehab technology (CRT) wheelchair users sit on every day. But commodes and bath/shower chairs are part of your
clients’ daily routines, and are critical to their overall health. “The rehab shower commode chair (RSCC) is often the second-
most important mobility device for clients,” says Nelson Pang, president of Raz Design. “Toileting and bathing/hygiene are how many clients start each day. Combining these routines can take up to several hours. Similar to a wheelchair experience, the risk of pressure injuries increases if appropriate seating and positioning is not provided in a RSCC.”
It’s ironic that a consumer so carefully measured and fitted for a seating system and wheelchair often uses bathroom equipment from pharmacies or big-box stores selling DME to seniors. Straight-backed, plastic shower chairs might be fine for that demographic, but Pang points out, “Factors such as hard, flat-shaped seats; oversized and incorrectly placed apertures; improper positioning can all significantly increase the risk of pressure injuries” in complex rehab clients.
COMPLEX NEEDS, REGARDLESS OF THE SURFACE
Clarke Health Care Sales Representative Wade Lawrence explains that functionally, it makes no sense when a consumer using complex seating turns to general DME for bathing and hygiene.
“People who are in CRT, most of the time they’re on a seating system like a ROHO [cushion] or a gel overlay of some type, due to the fact that they don’t have [intact] sensation,” he says. “A lot of them can’t weight shift.”
ATP Series
Optimal Seating on All Surfaces
See us in Booth 203 at the International Seating Symposium
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