Seca 985 bed scale for dialysis facilities

The Seca 985 is the mobile bed and dialysis scale by Seca that is ideally suited to monitoring patients’ weight changes. In intensive care units, for example, early recognition of weight fluctuations is vital since any change could affect the health and life of the patient. Likewise in dialysis treatment facilities, the Seca 985 bed scale is essential for weight monitoring.

Especially in dialysis treatment or the ICU, many patients cannot be weighed while standing or sitting. A mobile bed scale which allows the patient to remain in bed while being weighed is of enormous help. The patient is spared the trouble of moving from bed to scale and back again and medical personnel are relieved of unnecessary physical exertion.

The Seca 985 bed scale makes it all very easy with a patented lift mechanism that allows the user to roll the load cells under the bed and secure them there. All that’s required is the push of a button and a lever. Thanks to the patented mechanism, no effort is required. Just as helpful is the limit function which signals a change in weight with an acoustic warning, making it unnecessary for the user to monitor the display continuously. The pre-TARE function also simplifies things: the weight stored in memory (of the patient’s bed, for example) can be deducted from the currently measured weight, leaving only the patient’s body weight in the display.

When a patient is dehydrated, the amount of water in the body decreases and the patient’s weight along with it. The patient could suffer a circulatory collapse or shock. In cases of hyperhydration, the patient’s weight increases due to unchecked fluid retention. The consequences range from headache to cramps, edema and even death.

If the patient’s condition involves high volumes of fluid such as in dialysis or fluid losses as seen in intensive care, the continuous measuring by Seca 985 bed scale is a great help. The body should contain neither too little nor too much water because either condition may have dangerous consequences, e.g., dehydration or hyperhydration.

Up till now it has been necessary during dialysis treatment to keep an eye on measurements until water and toxic substances had been flushed from the body. Now the asymmetric limit function replaces all the uninterrupted monitoring with an acoustic warning.

The difference is really quite simple between the asymmetric limit function for dialysis and the symmetric limit function for intensive care. A limit can be set for one function and a fluctuation range can be specified for the other. Particularly in intensive care, that’s a big help in monitoring illnesses with extreme fluctuations in fluid levels.

Because patients undergo dialysis treatments at certain intervals, toxic substances and water collect in the body which the diseased kidneys cannot eliminate. As a result, the weight of the patient increases day by day. At the time of treatment, the patient’s dry weight, that is, without accumulated fluid, can be determined and defined as the target weight. As soon as that weight is reached, an acoustic warning sounds and hemodialysis can be stopped.

In cases of severe burns, patients experience a serious loss of fluid as the wounds discharge large amounts of protein-laden fluid. The body attempts to strike a balance by storing fluid taken from blood vessels. This reaction in turn leads to difficulty in the body’s maintaining proper circulation. With the help of the symmetric limit function, the patient’s weight with an adequate supply of fluids is determined along with the corresponding fluctuation range. If the value is outside the range, an acoustic warning is sounded. Standing by and checking the display? Completely unnecessary.

When the pause function is activated, objects can be placed on or removed from the bed without influencing the weighing results. If the patient requests an extra pillow, that’s no problem at all. Doctors and nurses can respond to the patient’s every wish and still obtain the desired results. It’s very easy – with use of the command “Pause ON”, the weighing process can be interrupted for as long as necessary. All weight changes that are made until the “Pause OFF” key is pressed will be ignored when the results are calculated.

The optional multifunctional display Seca 435 supplements the Seca 985 bed scale with still another important function, the symmetric limit function. It also provides a pause key and a weight memory function that can hold up to seven different measurements/weights at once.

A stable device trolley simplifies mobile use of the Seca 985 bed scale. On top next to the permanently mounted display and operating element there is a storage compartment for the optional Seca 435 multifunctional display and a writing surface for filling out index cards or diagnosis notepads. The four load cells can be safely transported on the lower shelves.

The rechargeable batteries delivered with the bed scale ensure that measurements remain in memory even during power loss and guarantee simple and sure weighing under extreme conditions. Extra help is provided by an operating and display element with easyto-read figures and easy-to-follow menus and by the keyboard’s user-friendly and easy-toclean operating elements.