1M. Sc. [Engg] Student, Department of Design, M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
2Professor, Department of Design, M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
3Asst. Professor, Department of Design, M. S. Ramaiah School of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, 560 058
In India the number of disabled individuals is increasing every year. Mobility aids are useful for patients for transportation and a replacement for walking especially in indoor and outdoor environment. Wheelchairs and stretchers are the most commonly used medical equipment for the transportation of patients. Transferring the patients from wheelchair to stretcher or to the medical bed is always an issue for the attendant or nurse. Understanding the various issues regarding the mobility equipment and introducing a better design will be an asset for the medical field and a helping hand for disabled individuals. There is a need for a wheelchair cum stretcher to facilitate the disabled patient's mobility and to provide a novel medical equipment for use in the Indian hospitals.
Adopting various kinds of research methods helped to obtain more information about hospital mobility aids and for data collection. It has been observed that every year the numbers of disabled individuals are increasing by different kinds of accidents. Presently wheelchairs and stretcher are the commonly used mobility aid for indoor and outdoor purpose. From the user study it was found out that the need of a wheelchair cum stretcher can be an asset for the Indian hospitals. Transferring the patients from wheelchair to the stretcher or to the bed is a difficult task in hospitals. The presently used wheelchair and stretcher design is not meeting the user's need. From the identified need, QFD was generated and the main priorities should be given to ergonomic design, mechanism, safety and functionality. From the Quality Function Deployment (QFD), Product Design Specification (PDS) was made. Considering the issues like safety, hygienic, cleaning and functionality the concepts were generated.
New features like document holder, provision for oxygen cylinder, and rotatable handle have been introduced. Final concept was selected using Pugh selection method by evaluating all the concepts with bench marked product. A 1: 2 mock up model had been made to validate the concept and feedback was collected from users. Our study shows that it is possible to save 50% space by the wheelchair-cum-stretcher design. The product will thus likely be an efficient mobility aid in hospitals.
Mobility Aid, Dual Purpose, Wheelchair cum Stretcher, Convertible Type, Safety
