Did you know that hospitals often use bathroom independence as one of the primary assessments of a patient’s readiness for discharge?
This fundamental aspect of daily life is made all the more critical for its personal nature. Many people are reluctant to ask for help in the bathroom—a small, slippery and sometimes wet area filled with hard surfaces and sharp corners, where patients must be able to sit down and stand back up, or step from one surface into another, often without adequate support or balance.
All of these factors make the bathroom a dangerous area—and one that has to be navigated multiple times a day.
One of the best things you can do to prevent slips and falls and other emergencies is to equip your bathroom with the necessary handrails and accessories to facilitate easier use for people with mobility issues. Not only will these solutions mitigate physical risks for seniors and other patients, but bath safety products put everyone in an easier state of mind.
Fortunately, Tampa’s home medical equipment store and supplier has a full range of bath safety products to equip your home bathroom in the ways that best suit you and your needs.
Toilet Safety and Comfort
Difficulty using the toilet isn’t just uncomfortable; it can be dangerous. Accidents or holding it in for too long join other risks like falls when sitting or standing back up, or even accidents leading to wet, slippery floors. Providing comfortable, easy toilet use mitigates these risks, as well as the stress and embarrassment they cause.
Safety rails: These metal support frames, or “toilet seat risers,” fit on either side of the toilet and can be adjusted by height to provide something to grab and push off of, with both hands, when sitting or standing.
Raised toilet seat: A substantial, toilet seat-shaped cushion doesn’t just provide a soft seat; it lessens the stress of squatting down to reach the seat and then standing back up again. The padding is also helpful for people who have suffered pelvic or hip injuries. (And they’re easy to wipe clean in case of accidents.)
Long-reach comfort wipe: This aid for daily living allows for easy, thorough wiping while still seated, especially helpful for those who have balance or flexibility issues.
Bath and Shower Safety
Navigating a shower presents risks for the strongest among us. Many showers require users to step from one surface, over a barrier, onto a slippery shower floor, temporarily requiring you to balance on one leg and then the other in a precarious situation. Many bath and shower medical products are aimed at drastically reducing the risks involved in that simple daily maneuver.
Non-slip mat or decals: The first vital step in bath and shower safety is to equip your shower floor with added tread that reduces the potential for slips.
Shower chair: A simple solution that saves lives, this metal and plastic chair comes equipped with non-slip feet and added support rails for the arms. Users who can sit while bathing are at much less risk for slipping and falling.
Shower bench: A step further in safety, this chair allows users to sit outside of the bath/shower, and then swing their legs inside while still seated, thus eliminating the need to stand on either foot in a slippery environment.
Your Tampa Home Medical Equipment Store for Bathroom Safety
Shopping online for bathroom safety solutions can be daunting, and it can cause delays in the necessary job of equipping your bathroom. When folks in Tampa shop medical supplies before they buy them, and even compare them to a full range of products available, they have a better sense of what solutions are out there and what will work best for each individual and their bathroom space.
On top of that, Helios HME is staffed with friendly experts who can help guide you through the options, so that you’ll better understand what you’re buying and how best to use it.
Deckard & Company