Healthcare Design - June 2015 - 15

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PREVIEW: HCD CONFERENCE & EXPO

Pathway to better bariatric care
Body mass index, or BMI, has been the traditional benchmark
for classifying obesity, which affects more than 60 million
adults in the U.S. But Christopher Upton, a project manager
at the University of Texas Office of Facilities, Planning, and
Construction (Austin, Texas), says that the system falls short in
adequately defining the bariatric patient population.
Talking about size alone, which BMI measures, doesn't help
providers address the type of equipment, staffing needs, and
care environments that need to be in place to treat bariatric
patients, he says.
To clarify this, Upton, who served as chair of the bariatrics committee for the 2014
Facility Guidelines Institute's Guidelines for Design and Construction of Hospitals and
Outpatient Facilities, wants to introduce a new classification for bariatric patients that
looks not only at BMI but at other characteristics that can better measure a person's
health condition, including girth, skin sensitivity, and ambulatory capacity. Upton will
share his ideas on bariatric care at the Healthcare Design Conference & Expo (Nov.
14-17, Washington, D.C.) during the session "The Bariatric Patient: Making the Case
for Reclassification."
Upton's revised definition of bariatrics breaks down patients into four levels, with a
Level 1 bariatric patient having a BMI of 30 or more, no visible skin sores or blisters,
a waist of more than 45 inches, and moderate independence when it comes to maintaining hygiene and dressing themselves. A Level 4 patient would exceed 450 pounds
and be fully dependent on caregivers.
"Adding that type of analysis to a system can let [operators] know what are the
staffing and equipment requirements," he says.
Then facilities can better design their spaces and equip their intake points with
the necessary equipment to process and start treating bariatric patients-something
that Upton says has been piecemeal so far. "If you're in the business of doing bypass
or other types of weight-loss surgeries, you're more sensitive to dealing with these
patients and patient size, so your focus is there," he says. "Ideally, we'd like to try to
get all facilities to be able to handle it."
He points to the parameters outlined in the 2014 guidelines as a starting point for
design ideas, such as installing patient lifts, bariatric toilets, adding larger bed sizes,
and making sure doorway widths are designed to accommodate bariatric equipment.
"I try to encourage clients to make sure that at least some part of the environment
can be dealt with for bariatrics," he says.-AD

Register to attend the 2015 Healthcare
Design Conference & Expo
The 2015 Healthcare Design Conference & Expo will be held
Nov. 14-17 at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention
Center in Washington, D.C. Find out what's in store by
visiting HCDConference.com for details on educational
sessions, keynote presentations, networking events, and
registration.

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Healthcare Design - June 2015

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