Patent Application
20130200204
The present invention relates generally to phlebotomy chairs and in particular discloses a system and method for improving hygiene on a phlebotomy chair examination surface.
Working in a clean environment and minimizing cross-contamination is an important safety factor for doctors and other medical staff. A contaminated environment raises the risks of infection and other dangers to the patients and medical professionals. Various methods and devices are known for covering a support surface of a medical examining table. One method typically utilized is covering the medical examining table with sanitary paper supplied from a paper roll. Therefore, the patient contacts the sanitary paper during an examination or a treatment procedure. Following the contact with the patient, removal and disposal of the exposed sanitary paper occurs. The paper is unrolled after each patient such that a fresh portion of paper is positioned on the examining table prior to each use.
With medical examining tables, the tables are typically of sufficient size to accommodate a patient in a lying position, thereby having a relatively large surface area. The paper rolled on to such relatively large surface area is generally self supported. Additionally, because paper rolls are common practice with respect to examining tables, the roll support is typically built in to the table or connected to the rigid table or frame utilizing screws, bolts or the like.
While concerns about contamination of medical instruments and facilities have increased, the present inventors have recognized that no protections have been developed for the examination surfaces of phlebotomy chairs. A phlebotomy chair has a sitting surface for the patient and a table coupled to the sitting surface. Typically the table attaches to the sitting surface at a location corresponding to an armrest for a chair, and provides an examination surface that extends forward or across the patient so that the patient may rest an arm upon the examination surface of the table. The examination surface only has to support the arm of a patient, and therefore is relatively narrow.
There are thousands, if not millions, of phlebotomy examination surfaces in use on a daily basis without provision of fast and easy hygienic safety. There is a need for a device and method that can be easily implemented with these existing phlebotomy examination surfaces or new chairs and provide reliable protection.
The present invention maximizes public health and minimizes the spread of contaminants from patient to patient during a medical procedure. The present invention is designed to reduce the likelihood of infectious agents, contaminants and other bodily fluids passing to a patient who is using a phlebotomy chair support surface during a blood test in a hospital, doctor's office or lab. Another aspect of the present invention relates to a method for protecting a phlebotomy surface from contamination. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention provide a barrier to reduce the likelihood that contaminants resulting from the blood drawing procedure will be a threat to the safety of other individuals. Protection of the individual patients and the doctors and office assistants who all come into frequent contact with multiple phlebotomy chairs is of the utmost importance and if not done properly, can lead to a whole host of problems, which can be prevented through the proper installation of the present invention.
In relation to the field of medical procedures, the present invention allows for the maintaining of a hygienic medical environment as well as protecting not only the various patients who come into contact with the phlebotomy chair, but the doctor as well. Embodiments provide a method and device for protecting the surface of a phlebotomy chair from cross contamination between users. Various embodiments provide for a temporary and removable surface to shield the phlebotomy chair which is easily installed and maintains the paper laterally with respect to the relatively narrow examination surface. Shielding the phlebotomy chair from contamination is desirable to any phlebotomist's office.
In one embodiment a paper roller with a phlebotomy chair arm attachment is employed to provide complete coverage of the examination surface of a phlebotomy chair. By completely covering the examination surface area of the phlebotomist's chair, such embodiments protect the patient and doctor from contamination as well as acting as an agent for the doctor in maintaining a hygienic environment for all who pass through, including the patients, doctors, any other office workers or assistants, and anyone else who routinely or occasionally comes into contact with the phlebotomist's chair.
Various embodiment methods include covering the phlebotomy chair examination surface with medical paper. Medical paper is an industry tried and true cover that is more than capable of protecting against viruses, infections, and diseases, and so utilizing these protective properties is beneficial for embodiments of the present invention while allowing for cost savings. By covering the examination surface of a phlebotomy chair such embodiments are able to prevent any potentially harmful contamination from remaining once the sheet of medical paper is removed prior to the arrival of the next patient. After each use the portion of the paper that was in contact with the patient or examination surface is discarded. Discarding the used medical paper, whether or not it has actually been contaminated, significantly reduces any chances of the doctor, office workers, office assistants, and most importantly, the various patients of all ages in varying degrees of health, from being cross-contaminated. By discarding the used sheets of medical paper, such embodiments successfully maintain the integrity of the environment and allow for a cleaner phlebotomy office.
Various embodiments may be used on phlebotomy chairs in drawing stations, hospitals, doctor's offices and labs. Various embodiments include a holder that is configured to attach to the arm of a phlebotomy chair, a removable roller rotatably mounted to the holder and a roll of medical paper disposed on the roller. The holder is configured so that the roller is disposed under the examination surface of the phlebotomy chair. Paper is extended from the roller to pass around an end of the examination surface and then pass under a crossbar of the holder to cover the examination surface.
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Contact with unhygienic surfaces can lead to the spread of infection and disease. The need for proper hygiene is especially critical in medical environments in which patients are vulnerable to contaminating and being contaminated by germs to and from other patients. In addition, many people are anxious or worried during a professional blood test and proper medical hygiene is critical to assuaging some of these fears.
The present invention was developed for use on the examination surface of phlebotomy chairs to support proper hygiene during the course of drawing blood from a patient. Various embodiments are designed to easily and economically dispense medical paper over the examination surface that will typically come into contact with a patient during blood sampling. The paper protects patients from the surfaces that may be contaminated by blood or other residual bodily materials. Patients may feel more relaxed knowing they are in a clean and safe environment and not at risk of contracting a potential infection or disease from the blood drawing procedure. The holders in accordance with the invention provide a device that can be easily retrofit to existing phlebotomy chairs or incorporated with new chairs and which maintain the paper in a reliable manner along the narrow examination surface.
Referring to
Each arm 20 has a recess or hole 26 sized to accept a pin 42 on a roller 40. For purposes of the following, a recess, which may extend only partway into the material that forms the arm 20, is also intended to include a hole, which may extend completely through the material of the arm 20. Hence, “recess” is a superset that includes “hole.” The roller 40 is removably disposed between the arms 20, in which each end of the roller 40 has a pin 42 that slots into the respective recess 26 of the arm 20. Structures other than recesses, e.g. clips, u-shaped cups, may be utilized to support the roller 40. The roller 40 may be formed of two sections that are spring-loaded with respect to each other to bias the pins 42 within their respective recess 26. Alternatively, the roller 40 may be rigid and instead the inherent flexibility of the arms 20 may be employed to retain and remove the roller 40 between the arms 20. Preferably each recess 26 is positioned in its respective arm 20 so that the roller 40 is substantially parallel to the crossbar 30 when fitted into the recesses 26. The roller 40 may be made from any suitable material, such as plastic or wood. A medical paper roll 50 may then be disposed on the roller 40. When all of the paper has been used, the roller 40 may be removed from between the arms 20, a new roll of paper 50 placed on the roller 40, and then the roller 40 with the new roll of paper 50 may be repositioned between the arms 20 via the recesses 26.
In the present embodiment, a support block 60 extends inward from each arm 20 between the crossbar 30 and the respective recess 26. A distance 28 from the recess 26 to the respective support block 60 is large enough to accommodate the size of the paper roll 50, i.e the distance is preferably at least slightly greater than the radius of an intended paper roll 50. The support blocks 60 are spaced a distance 62 from the crossbar 30 to define a table receiving slot 63. As described hereinafter, the table receiving slot 63 of the present embodiment will also serve as a paper receiving slot. As seen in
Use of the holder 10 with a phlebotomy chair 1 is shown in
Because the width 34 of the crossbar 30 exceeds the width 3 of the table 4, the crossbar 30 can be slid over the unattached end 6 of the table 4 towards the attached end 5 of the table 4 with the table 4 passing through the receiving slot 63. The crossbar 30 is positioned at any desired location, e.g. proximate the attached end 5 or proximate the free end 6, as desired and simply sits with the crossbar 30 resting on the examination surface 9 of the table 4. The bottom surface 33 of the crossbar 30 rests securely on the flat examination surface 9. The arms 20 hang down on respective sides of the table 4 so that the roller 40 is suspended under the table 4 and the support blocks 60, if present, stabilize the position. There is thus no need to use fixing or attaching mechanisms to attach the holder 10 to the table 4, and the holder 10 may be easily removed from the table 4 by simply slipping it off the unattached end 6. This makes the holder 10 very amenable to retrofitting to existing phlebotomy chairs.
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While the support blocks 60 and the spacer blocks 66 are described herein as separate blocks extending from each arm, any of the blocks may be replaced by a single component extending between both arms 20.
When properly installed, embodiments of the present invention provide a method for and in use on a phlebotomy chair that satisfy a long-felt need in the art for providing convenient hygienic surfaces to phlebotomy chairs. After the blood drawing procedure for a patient is complete, the used paper is simply rolled off, and is easily torn away and placed into a garbage or recycling receptacle. As needed, the paper is re-dispensed for each patient.
The Universal Precautions and Body Substance Isolation urge the use of non-porous protective covers such as gloves, masks, gowns, and protective eyewear to reduce the risk of exposure to potentially infectious material. Further, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OHSA) requires health care workers to wear gloves when they come in contact with patients. These precautions are predominantly effective in protecting against the spread of infectious agents from the patient to health care worker and from health care worker to patient. In addition, health care workers are required to dispose of medical gloves and to dispose of or sterilize instruments in between patients in order to address patient-to-patient transfer of infections agents.
While there are mandatory methods and devices in use to prevent the contamination of a medical worker from being contaminated by a patient, there is no such policy in protecting patients from the cross-contamination that may occur through fluids from other patients. In an environment in which blood is being taken and potentially contaminating a surface, such as the examination surface 9, it is critical to take measures to protect medical workers and patients alike.
Blood is capable of spreading many diseases, which are known as blood-borne diseases. The most common examples are HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C and viral hemorrhagic fevers. Since it is difficult to determine what pathogens any given blood contains, and some blood-borne diseases are lethal, standard medical practice regards all blood (and any body fluids) as potentially infective. Blood and body fluid precautions are a type of infection control practice that seeks to minimize this sort of disease transmission. Some experts say that blood poses the greatest threat to health in a laboratory or clinical setting due in part to needle disposal techniques and also because surfaces are not sterilized between use. Blood is potentially one of if not the most harmful contaminant that embodiments of the present invention are specifically designed to prevent against. Blood transfers carries, and spreads, every disease known to man and because of this simple, yet devastating fact, embodiments of the present invention should be implemented in all phlebotomist' s offices, on all of their chairs.
Although the invention herein has been described with reference to particular embodiments, it is to be understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and applications of the present invention. It is therefore to be understood that numerous modifications may be made to the illustrative embodiments and that other arrangements may be devised without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the following claims.
