Lateral Transfer Device for Hospital Stretcher

Abstract

Patient handling from hospital bed to CT scan, X-Ray centre, M R Scan, Sonography centre etc is a tedious job. Generally from bed to stretcher trolley the patient is manually transferred. Two persons lift the patient and put him on trolley stretcher. The manual handling of patient is injurious to patient as stresses are produced in the body of patient, especially in neck, backbone, limb joints etc. Also the nursing staffs who handle the patients also face health problems like shoulder, back pain. The primary objective of this device achieved is safe and efficient transfer of an injured patient to and from a hospital bed without any discomfort on account of the transfer. This is accomplished by the use of a pair of endless belts attached to rollers. The slab will travel with the movement of endless belts. A hand operated worm gearbox is used to drive the rollers. Two pairs of finite length belts are used connect slab and endless belts. This device can take a load up to 150kg smoothly which is sufficient for the weight range of obese persons.