Battery backup or not

[Garry]

Hi All,

Could I ask, in the days of backup generators, are units still specifying battery back option for their dialysis treatment chairs (or have you ever)?  We always have but I can only remember one instance, in 10 years, when it may have been used and that was not an emergency.

Thanks

[Ian Wilde]

Hi Garry, I've never heard of this spec at our place. The only chairs we have these days are for home dialysis and they don't have battery backup.  For whatever reason our patients are all on beds.

[Garry]

Beds have taken over at our main unit, though satellites still remain predominantly chairs.  

[John Moore]

We don't specify battery back-up on our chairs. We did have a few years ago but I don't think they were ever used!

[Chris Pearson]

On ours the Battery has a 5th motor to drive the footrest,if you spec an ECO with a 5th motor the price is very close so the only downside to specifying a Battery is they only last about 3 years and need replacing.
The upsides are that the chair can be used if the cleaners rip the 13A plug off for a while whilst you can replace it,  you can test the chair without mains present which is great for fault finding in the workshop and the chair can be used in a corridor if necessary e.g. acute admissions units and no beds free..

Hope this helps,I agree they are very rarely needed for mains failure.

[Chris Bates]

We have specified battery backup for ages now. Not entirely sure if we really need it. I don't think it has ever been needed due to mains failure, but it is comforting to have.
The old Bionic chairs had 2 PP3 batteries for backup, which were only enough for a couple of movements - they were always empty because by the time people realised the chair wasn't plugged in the batteries were dead.
We are mainly beds in the main unit and mainly chairs in satellites.
One unit was built with doors too narrow to get beds in !