Wheelchair Clinics: Improving Resident Lives and Supporting Our Communities
January 8, 2025 | Press Release
Nexion Health affiliates coordinate wheelchair inspections for their residents and members of the community while collecting non-perishable food items for local food pantries.
Wheelchairs have evolved from a singular use of transport to becoming a key resident mobility, positioning, and socialization aid in long term care. Not surprising is as our resident population’s clinical complexities have evolved so has our attention to how these residents spend their time out of bed and out of their rooms. Wheelchairs have become increasingly important in the quality of life our residents. Often referred to as a “resident’s seating system”, wheelchair needs are assessed by the interdisciplinary team (IDT) routinely to ensure individualized specifications, maximum use-case, and the seating system’s ongoing effectiveness.
Time spent in wheelchairs is increasing but for good reasons. With improved features for pressure redistribution, dynamic position changes, self-propulsion and even drink holders and pouch organizers, residents are more likely to spend less time in bed or isolated in their room as well as benefitting more from increased social engagement and supervision. A resident’s wheelchair “microclimate” has become increasingly important even beyond function including cleanliness, comfort, look and feel and even the addition of personal flare.
While assessing a resident’s seating system is rooted clinically, it does not mean it has to be boring, nor does it have to be limited to just those under our care. In December, Nexion Health affiliates hosted an internal and external Wheelchair Inspection Clinic that addressed our resident and our community needs. The “cost”? A donated non-perishable food item for our community visitors and of course free for our own residents.
Affiliates were encouraged to be as creative as possible to engage their community, their residents, and their IDT to execute the clinic and donation drive. Creativity aligned with operational workflow efficiencies like: electronic wheelchair inspection Microsoft form surveys for in-house residents that auto populated with key wheelchair details that could be easily reviewed, acted on and served as a baseline for future clinics; individualized inspection stickers to capture the inspection date for each wheelchair for ease of visual tracking; and a “general” equipment list order guide for the community participants that would link them to Amazon.com for specific recommended replacement items when the facility did not have a spare part available to donate to them.
While some facilities simulated “car washes”, others had Santa on hand to give out hot cocoa during the inspection and food drive. Therapists and residents alike praised the process.
“I thought the resident wheelchair inspections were very helpful as it hit all the safety checkpoints and even ensured the cleaning of the wheelchairs.”- Holden Whitley, OTR Golden Creek Healthcare and Rehabilitation Center
“The wheelchair clinic was fantastic! It was really thoughtful of therapy to assist that for us and make it fun!” -Kerry Garner, Resident of Many Healthcare & Rehabilitation Center
*Also pictured below
We want to thank our affiliates and their teams, especially our rehab departments for such a wonderful and fun clinic that impacted nearly two thousand residents on December 13th!
Here are a few links to some of our clinics highlighted on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/reel/443885838585671