[USMA:34588] Re: Patient height and mass

[CredoinIesum]

In a message dated 2005-09-21 11:29:39 Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Only on a whim do I get metric units, and, oddly, only the mass, not the height. "Metrophobia" is alive and well in U.S. healthcare. It would be a very unusual patient who would come along and state his or her mass in kilograms and height in meters. My hospital is only a month away froma adopting a new information system. In the new one, patient height and weight are ENTERED IN U.S. UNITS BUT ARE CONVERTED TO METRIC BY THE COMPUTER, AND POSTED ON THE PATIENT RECORD IN METRIC. Now, this still poses a safety hazard: the person entering the data must NOT obtain metric units first, but obtain U.S. units from the patient and let the computer do the converting. So, at my workplace we're not out of the woods yet. As an interesting note here.  I'm actually going through a college programme to work in the clinical laboratory right now, and I see that everything is done in metric.  For example in an aphaeresis donation the amount of RBCs, plasma, &c. to take from the donor is based on height in metres and weight in kilograms.  To my frustration when I go to donate they ask for my weight and height and whenI give it to them in metres and kilograms they say they can't use that and that the burden of conversion is on me.  (at that point I tell them in ft. in. but I honestly don't know my weight in pounds so I just guess something even though I know it isn't right) The machine they hook you up to for the aphaeresis donation ask for the pt height in ft. in. and weight in lbs; even though the machine has to convert to kg & m I can't give the blood bank personal my information in m & kg.  I've honestly thought about refusing to give them any 'old units' and telling them that they just lost a much needed donor for refusing to accept the correct units that should be used, especially in a medical situation!   Richard