An inflatable device designed in Bath that enables critically ill patients to be moved is set to enter clinical trials at the city’s Royal United Hospital later this year.
The Inflatable Prone Repositioning Device (IPRD) – known as the ’BathMat’ – has been created by engineering academics from the University of Bath in collaboration with the Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust (RUH).
It features a flat balloon-like cushion made to assist healthcare staff move the most critically ill patients in intensive care units.
Critically ill patients who are sedated and on a ventilator can benefit from being placed on their front as this increases the oxygen levels in their blood and reduces their risk of death by up to 17%.
National guidelines say these patients should be repositioned every two to four hours to avoid painful bed sores and injuries to other parts of the body.
However, this is a complicated, manual task, with up to seven people needed to lift and carefully reposition the patient’s arms and head. Great care must be taken not to displace the tubes and drips keeping the patient alive.
Currently, 16,500 patients are cared for in this way in the NHS each year, using sliding sheets or hoists – a task accounting for more than half a million staff hours a year in the NHS.
The team behind the BathMat hope it will make it possible for just two staff to complete the process, while also cutting the time needed from over half an hour per position adjustment to less than 10 minutes and also reducing the likelihood of pressure sores and organ injury, potentially allowing for more frequent repositioning.
In addition, it could bring knock-on benefits such as freeing up staff to perform other duties and protecting staff-to-patient ratios.
The University of Bath lead on the project is Dr Alexander Lunt, a senior lecturer in the Department for Mechanical Engineering and co-director of the Centre for Integrated Materials, Processes & Structures (IMPS).
He said: “Our goal is that the device will be proven to maintain or improve safety standards and enhance patient outcomes in the most unwell patients.
“We aim to achieve this while saving time and reducing the number of clinicians required needed to reposition prone patients.”
The initial inspiration for the device came from Dr Jerome Condry, Anaesthetics Clinical Fellow at the RUH, who has extensive first-hand experience of the challenges of regular patient repositioning.
Now clinical lead on the project, he said: “Being able to reduce the time, or the number of staff needed to complete the process, has substantial potential to make patients safer.
“The device has been carefully developed as a close collaboration over the past two years. We have received regular feedback from clinicians and patients alike, being described as a game changer and no-brainer by independent reviewers.”
Having already received Research Capability funding from the RUH and financial support from the university’s Impact Acceleration Account, the project has now been given £357,000 from the National Institute of Health and Care Research (NIHR) to determine its effectiveness and explore its commercial potential.
The clinical trial will run for 14 months at the RUH, along with other NHS trusts.
