Code Mobility: Inpatient Guide to Bariatric Safe Patient Handling

Purpose is to provide a process improvement for assisting and protecting bariatric patients and caregivers when an emergent safety issue occurs.  This improvement process started after a 700 LB bariatric patient was trapped in a broken bariatric bed in trendelberg and became short of breath. No one could locate the bariatric equipment and no resources were available to ensure patient and caregivers physical safety. A team of stakeholders was formed to identify the fall outs and a process was developed.  A process map was designed for Code Mobility and process designed for all bariatric patients on admission to the hospital from the Emergency Department.The process "Code Mobility" includes paging "Code Mobility" and location of incident overhead. Key people include Respiratory Therapy, Transportation, Physiotherapy, Central Supply and House Supervisor are also paged with information and report to the location to assist.  This includes timely immediate delivery of all the bariatric lifts from central supply. The house supervisor attends the incident with phone numbers and information pertinent to bariatric patients equipment.  When Code Mobility was implemented house wide,  mock Code Mobilites were practiced on each medical floor and mandatory power point  education was done by all caregivers. Since implementation, a debriefing tool has been utilized to identify any fallouts that may have occurred.