How do you remove supine patients from their homes?

[the_negro_puppy]

Case by case.

If the pt can walk and won't cause problems they walk out.
If the patient can't or shouldn't walk and there are stairs, the stair chair
If not bring stretcher into house.
If unconscious / cant sit up then supine on a scoop and try to manage. Buyt can be big problem if lots of stairs.

We do a lot of 'stay and play" and work arrests etc at scene until ROSC or other extenuating circumstances. I've never had to carry a supine pt on a scoop down more then a few stairs.

 

[NomadicMedic]

It's funny that we don't have scoop stretchers in Delaware. I mean, NOBODY has them, and in Washington it was the go to tool. The reeves is fine, it's just a pain to get it underneath the little old lady with the humeral head fx. Cases like that is where the scoop ruled.

 

[AtlasFlyer]

When I did my ambulance ride-along for class a couple weeks ago one of the calls was a lady who was having severe nerve pain and couldn't walk or bend her leg without extreme pain. The paramedics gave her some fentanyl, but it didn't do a whole lot for her. She was in a 2nd floor bedroom, the stairs were narrow and made a curve (not a straight, single-shot staircase), getting her down those stairs on a board would not have been possible, and she couldn't bend her leg to sit in the stair-chair (which probably wouldn't have been able to make the turn on the narrow staircase anyway). So the guys got a tarp from the ambulance and rolled her onto it. This was a fire department, and a rescue truck AND the ambulance responded to the call, so there was no shortage of people to carry her. There were 6 handles on the tarp, and with the number of responders we had it was very easy to carry her down the narrow stairs on that tarp to get her to the cot. The tarp isn't the answer to EVERY occasion of needing to move/carry a supine patient, but in *this* case it was the best option (especially with that very narrow, curved staircase), and there were plenty of people to carry.

 

[AlphaButch]

Mega Mover is my personal preference. For hip fx, I bring in a scoop (even if it's just to move them to the stretcher).

 

[Chris07]

Lots of stairs..person stable? Use the stair chair! Otherwise a flat is a good choice.

 

[Action942Jackson]

Smith cots FTW and stair chairs

 

[CritterNurse]

My favorite tool is the reeve's sleeve, but we've taken people out with stair chairs, back boards, or bringing the cot in.

What gets me is those elderly people who feel dizzy or feel like they can't walk, and decide to go upstairs into their bedrooms to wait for us.

 

[medictinysc]

ABC
Ambulate
Before
Carry


Ha ha. I know that'll get someone goat.

 

[Tigger]

ABC
Ambulate
Before
Carry


Ha ha. I know that'll get someone goat.

I'll walk out whoever I can, but the unconscious patient is not one of them.

 

[Trashtruck]

Additionally, I don't see the big deal of bring the power gurney into homes, up a flight of normal sized stairs. Obviously this adds more weight, but I've done this a couple hundred times most likely, with no incident. Of course it's not ideal, but it gets done around here all the time, problem free.

If it's not ideal, why do it? Why work harder? You're carrying a hugeass stretcher up a flight of stairs(as opposed to a lightweight Reeves, stairchair, or scoop), then adding more weight(pt) to it, just to carry it back down the stairs. How does this make any sense?

Should something happen, how are you going to explain your unsafe practice?

 

[Akulahawk]

Well, back in my time...

Seriously, I used a break-away flat, a scoop, occasionally a backboard, or even the stretcher itself, either singly, or in some combination to get the patient out of their house. I've even been known to physically carry the patient out without using any of that equipment. However, there are times that "ABC" is appropriate. I'll do that when it's appropriate.

Why do I use any of those methods? It's simply because I lack the ability of this guy to levitate things...

 

[phideux]

Ny vote goes for the Mega-Mover.

 

[DrParasite]

Reeves Flexible stretcher, used primarily when carrying supine down stairs

Reeves Sleeve, used when you need to take spinal precautions and will be going up or down or long distrances

the cot is a transportation device, not a carry device, especially when you re going up stairs.

for the original scenario, I would grab a reeves flexible stretchers. It's actually my primary carrying device when I go on a call for a report of an unconscious person.