The new attendant-operated transport wheelchair, engineered solely for institutional use, is becoming increasingly popular with hospitals and airports. Institutions are trimming their ground transportation budgets, keeping those who use wheelchairs out of harm’s way, and are finding that they rarely have a shortage of transport chairs. All of these things have been significant issues for public facilities that provide wheelchair access.

After decades of spending from 20% to 33% above the demand to account for self-propelled wheelchairs that were too frequently targets of theft (or would otherwise go missing) or break down during the course of a year, hospitals and airports are turning over a new leaf. Wheelchair theft in particular is one of the biggest problems affecting their ground passenger and patient transport needs, but this problem is finally being nipped in the bud.

The fact that the standard wheelchair was self-propelled and could be rolled away by anyone sitting in it was a great contributor to the theft of this product from institutions. The second greatest factor adding to its premature disappearance is the fact that they fold, allowing them to be easily fit into cars. A thief could simply roll away in a wheelchair, fold it up, put it in a car and drive away with it.

While automatic wheel locks which require an attendant to push the chair have contributed a great deal to theft prevention, there are other contributing factors as well. Nestable models which fit into their own storage systems streamline things for both administrators and the people who use them on a daily basis. Nesting systems take up just 1/3 the space of conventional wheelchairs, and can be locked in place. This prevents both theft and “borrowing” of the chairs by other staff members.

Ergonomically designed for the safety of both the attendant and the passenger, the transport chair features a single handlebar positioned in such a way that the attendant maintains correct posture when pushing it. Correct posture and positioning prevents back injury, which has become all too common among nurses, aides and transport workers. This design extends to transferring passengers to and from the transport chair. Arms that allow for a simple side-pivot transfer make things significantly easier on everyone involved.

Fewer incidents of injury to staff translates into fewer sick days for staff who might ordinarily need time to recuperate from injury and fewer worker’s compensation claims. Hospitals, airports and other institutions can look forward to lasting usefulness from their equipment, and for the first time in history an actual return on this investment, because one theft-resistant transport chair is equal to having ten wheelchairs in terms of longevity.

The transport chair is becoming a more popular alternative to the typical wheelchair because it saves money for institutions in a combination of ways. Use of personal transport chairs can result in a savings of 20 to 33% on an institution’s equipment budget–money that is sorely needed in these hard-pressed times!

STAXI is the world’s leading nestable transport chair system and the number one wheelchair alternative for hospitals and airports. STAXI’s are hard to steal, built to last, simple to use and easy to find. Contact at: info@staxi.com Go To www.Staxi.com

[tags]wheelchair, transport wheelchair, patient transportation, passenger transportation, airport transpor[/tags]