The Facility Guidelines Institute (FGI) has made a terminology change in the 2018 edition of the FGI Guidelines that now focuses on safe handling for “patients of size.”
The switch away from "bariatrics" terminology takes in account not only a patient’s weight, but also height and distribution of weight throughout the body, according to an article on the HCPro website.
Bariatric surgeries have climbed 10 percent from 2015 to 2016 to 216,000 surgeries, according to The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. But it is not only bariatric patients who may present challenges with movement and transfer.
The language shift has to do with accommodating any type of patient that presents themselves as unusual as far as size is concerned. For example, an 8-foot-tall patient — or visitor or staff person.
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