Falls-Management while bathing

Bathing people can be a problem when it comes to falls. Getting them into and out of the bath. I came across this marvellous piece of equipment recently designed and manufactured by Horcher. A company just down the road from myself.

The Forelli shower trolley is quite unique in that the patient can be placed onto the trolley, either with the use of a hoist or with manual assistance and then one person can completely shower the individual with no assistance from a third party.

Often the difficulty with other shower trolleys is that you have to hold onto the individual with one hand while showering them with the other. Not so with the Forelli. The drop sides make accessibility easy onto the

soft, ergonomically designed trolley bed. All controls for the bed are foot operated, so the carer never has to leave the patient to fiddle on with hand operated controls.

As you would expect, the sides are raised but also the centre section raises to roll the person to one side and then the other to enable showering with ease.

The Forelli automatically inclines itself slightly to allow the water to be drained directly into a stand-pipe or into an existing bath while in operation.

Also, you may expect something like this to be expensive. Especially if you only have one or two people who would be likely to use it. Well you wouldn’t be wrong. However, Horcher are aware of this and (I take credit for this suggestion) you can now lease it rather than purchase it. The good thing about leasing is that it is tax deductable as it is not seen as an asset. It also means that it comes with full maintenance included in the guarantee.

Not only is it ideal for any who need to be hoisted supine, but it is so easy to use. Any mffp (see falls management in stockport story) should at least consider the need for one of these devices.

http://www.horcher.com

Horcher’s Forelli

shower trolley

Their web site contains some good documentation and video clips of the trolley as well as other equipment of theirs