Phlebotomy is the science of drawing blood from the patients and taking those samples to the laboratory in order to get the tests done on those specimens. This is an important act in the treatment of a patient and must be done with extreme caution and diligence.
- When a patient enters a phlebotomy room there is a chair that is kept and the patient is required to sit on that chair to get his or her blood drawn by the phlebotomy technician. This chair is known as phlebotomy chair.
- The phlebotomy chairs are designed in a specific manner in order to serve the purpose of the patient as well as the technician.
- There are different chairs that can be adjusted according to the body weight and height of the patient, so that the patients do not have any problem while they are examined.
The design of the chair should be comfortable to the patient:
The phlebotomy chairs must be equipped with back folding armrests and with screw joints, so that they can be sturdy, and they can also facilitate the examination of the patients. This chair could cause a big problem for the patient and the technician if it has been designed for the job. Drawing of blood is not a very pleasant sight and everyone would agree on this. This may trigger a vasovagal attack in a patient who may faint or collapse or for that matter may feel dizzy and fall off the chair. The reasons behind this event could be many such as.
Just the sight of pointer:
- Sight of one’s own blood
- Previous night’s fasting which was instructed to the patient for the sake f the laboratory test
- Heart attack, though this is very rare
Problems caused to the phlebotomy staff
The staff may need to bend a lot if the chair is not proper and this may have led to back pain in the staff. Also, the chair that is not designed for the purpose may not be easily cleansable leading to problems like infection transfer from one patient to another.
The phlebotomy chairs must have the following features such as
- Comfortable for the patients: the chair should be so designed that it should be
- Comfortable for the patient to mount it, sit on it for as long as the procedure takes place
- Safe for the patient and also give a sense of safety for the patient that is sitting on it
- The routine phlebotomy should not use the physical restraints as these may scare the patients a lot. Generally, the patients must be talked out of their fears and even then if they refuse to get the procedure done they should be let go.
- There should be an arm extension or the fixed arm position that should aid the patient in extending their arm for drawing of the blood. The extending of one’s arm also increases the visibility of their elbow region making drawing of blood easier.
- It must be possible to clean the chair easily so that there is no transfer of pathogens from one patient to another. The new versions of these chairs are either padded and they are generally made of reinforced fibreglass materials which are black or stele gray in color, so that they can ideally suit the environment of a clinic.
- The chair must be so adjustable so that the phlebotomy staffs do not have to bend a lot while drawing of blood.
- The arm rest should be large enough to make it easier for the process of venipuncture.
There are also the bariatric phlebotomy chairs that are used for strength and durability, and the steel frames with which they are made, make them rust and corrosion-free.
Having the right type of phlebotomy chairs in the hospital, laboratory or medical clinic is a slightly difficult task. Large number of different phlebotomy chairs models are available to choose from; it is necessary to select those which help the staff in making the procedure of blood drawing easier.
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