Designated as a Specialized Center in the management of severe obesity, the Montpellier University Hospital has a resuscitation ambulance suitable for overweight patients.
A tailor-made ambulance for patients weighing 600g to 300kg! Brought to the aid of more and more obese patients, the teams of the Hérault emergency medical assistance service (SAMU) and the Mobile Emergency and Resuscitation Services (SMUR) of Montpellier have just acquired an adapted resuscitation ambulance. to overweight patients, as to premature babies. The Regional University Hospital Center (CHRU) of Montpellier is thus the only establishment in Languedoc-Roussillon to have such a vehicle.
The Montpellier teams have designed specific equipment in this vehicle: a support sheet with safety harness as well as a tailor-made vacuum mattress to allow the obese patient to be stretchered in complete safety. But their efforts to adapt were not limited to this purchase.
As obese patients require longer and more complex interventions (blood pressure measurement, infusions, ventilation, etc.), mobilize more staff and require the use of suitable equipment, the entire emergency organization has also been redesigned. Upstream for example, and with the agreement of the patient suffering from obesity or morbid obesity, his confidential medical file is supplemented by specific data facilitating his possible emergency management: in addition to the medical history and his treatment, as for other patients, mention will also be made of their weight, possible access to their home, etc. These details, provided in conjunction with their attending physician or health professionals working at their home, are invaluable for regulatory assistants and regulatory physicians, who can thus immediately allocate the human resources and equipment necessary for patient safety. Result, by dialing 15, the patient is identified by the display of his telephone number.
Even more than the number of professionals mobilized to transport the patient, training is of particular importance. Thus, all SMUR ambulance drivers now drive heavy-vehicle type mobile units (ambulances) and now hold new heavy-vehicle licenses.
They also benefited from training to prepare them to assess the risks for the patient and the teams and to learn handling and care for patients in their environment. And, the difficulties are often numerous: a spiral staircase, a broken elevator, a bedroom door that is too narrow, a lack of access to a house are all elements which require a multidisciplinary collective consultation and an adaptation to the situations of the urgency.
The 6th national epidemiological survey on obesity (OBEPI), conducted in 2012, established that 32% of French adults were overweight, and 15% were obese. In Languedoc-Roussillon, the prevalence of obesity rose from 10.3% of the population in 1997 to 15.6% in 2012, an increase of more than 51.5% in 15 years. The region is thus the 11th region most affected by this disease.
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