Weigh scales for home dialysis

[Chris Bates]

Hi all,
What do you all do with scales for home haemo (and PD?) patients?
I assume they should be 'M' marked Class III scales and should be regularly checked.
Do you do the cal checks or swap out with calibrated scales ?
Does anyone supply non medical scales or let the patients use their own ?
I can't find any national guidance.
Chris

[Garry]

Hi Chris,

We currently supply M class scales to all haemo patients.  Swap out for calibrated scales annually.  Calibration and certificate provided by local registered firm.  We use SECA 877 model

Quite old but I assume current document below

http://www.ukwf.org.uk/res/medicalguidancenotes.pdf

[Chris Bates]

Hi Garry,
I did see that document, but it is only recommendations of an interested body based on the EU NAWI directive. It is worded so as to make it seem that we are compelled to use Class III or 'M' marked sacales for medical use.

The directive itself only seems to specify accuracy requirements for the Class of device and doesn't have anything about compulsion to use any particular class for medical purposes.

I suspect their recommendations are probably a good idea, but I was after actual UK/EU documents telling us what we 'MUST' use.

Regards
Chris

[Roger Moore]

Hi all

Please see Estates and Facilities Alert EFA/2010/001:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwirvOPz0PzWAhXRKlAKHRuCBcQQFghlMAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hfs.scot.nhs.uk%2Fpublications%2F1481219789-EFA%25202010%2520001.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0coAxZw6NX-ogZRsoYkSxK

If I am reading the alert correctly "it is a legal requirement to have equipment that is appropriately accurate" and "all
new medical weighing equipment should be of Class III accuracy (or higher if appropriate)".

[Chris Bates]

Thanks Roger,

Just the sort of thing I was looking for - have to justify every penny spent at the moment - same for everyone I guess.

(Still irritates my pedantic brain though, that the NAWI directive referred to in most of these documents in no way suggests what class of scale should be used for medical purposes !)

[Onkar Singh]

Hi All

We use class III medical grade scales, but I cant find a reference to specify what the graduation or accuracy should be for the scales used for Renal patients.

[Matt Waite]

We also use 877's which are swapped out annually and replaced with a freshly verified set.

We used to have a contractor that did the verification at the patient's home, but a change of supplier means we now have to bring them back to base to be checked. Consequentially we have to keep a stock of 'good' scales for exchange.