AN ERGONOMIC ASSESSMENT

OF DIALYSIS CHAIR
USED BY THE DIALYSIS
CENTERS IN CARAGA REGION

A Research Paper Proposal

Aurea
Eleccion
Lopez
Monforte, YJ
Urquiza
BACKGROUND
OF THE STUDY
What is Ergonomics?
• Is a scientific way of applying safety principles and putting “people first” in
designing facilities, work places or anything that involves human
interaction.
• It focuses on improving designs that will reduce the risk on human health,
discomfort, injuries, and fatigues.
Application of Ergonomics in Healthcare System
▸ Used in the field of medicine, especially in U.S.A, China, Japan,
and other well developed countries around the world.

▸ Ergonomics is vital to the medical field in understanding human

limitations early in the development of medical devices can reduce
errors and avoid performance problems exacerbated by stress
and fatigue.

▸ Developing medical devices or equipment that can avoid

performance problems and improving work condition based on
ergonomic principles is a big contribution of this course.
Application of Ergonomics in Healthcare System

▸ In the Philippines, ergonomics is poorly applied in most of the

facilities in the country especially in healthcare.

▸ And, ergonomics is not widely used especially in healthcare

facilities in the country.
Objectives of the Study

1. To be able to identify the list of gaps in the current dialysis

chairs and establish standard human body measurement for
Filipino dialysis patients to create an ergonomically designed
chair.

2. Also the study aims to investigate whether the ergonomic

chair of the dialysis centers has significant relationship in
eliminating the safety and comfort issues encountered on
both the patients and the medical assistants.
Patients often assume awkward
physical positions during the
treatment
 Dialysis
• According to the World Health Organization (WHO), diabetes and kidney
failure are one of the leading causes of death.

• In the Philippines, diabetes is the fifth (5th) while kidney failure rank nine (9th)
in the leading cause of death according to the Department of Health (DOH).
What is Dialysis?
• Dialysis is a 4-6 hour cleansing treatment of the blood when the kidneys
no longer function properly, they cannot remove excess water, salts, and
waste from the blood.
Dialysis Treatment

▸ a treatment that filters and purifies the blood using a machine

▸ helps keep the body in balance when the kidneys can’t do their job

Common diseases that leads to Kidney failure and are

subjected to dialysis treatment
1. Diabetes
2. High blood pressure
3. Auto-immune disease
4. Genetic disease
5. Urinary tract problem
CURRENT SITUATION

▸ About 5 to 7 percent increase in the number of dialysis patients

per year according to University of California.

▸ In the Philippines, there’s an ascending trend of identified

dialysis patient undergoing dialysis treatment and kidney
transplant according to the National Kidney Transplant Institute.
(see Fig. 1)

▸ The Caraga Region has a total population of 426 identified

dialysis patients as of July 2017 according to Dr. Agnes L.
Cullantes of DOH Caraga.
Number of identified dialysis patients in the Philippines as of 2015
LIST OF ACCREDITED DIALYSIS CENTERS
IN CARAGA REGION

1. Manual J. Santos Hospital

2. Nephrology Center of Caraga, Inc. (NCCI)
3. BMC – Nephro Synergies, Inc.
4. Butuan Doctors Hospital
5. Miranda Family Hospital
6. Caraga Regional Hospital
7. Surigao Medical Center
CURRENT DESIGN

▸ Not adjustable seat pan;

▸ Not adjustable back rest;
▸ Not adjustable arm rests;
▸ No foot rest;
▸ No lamp post;
▸ Foreign anthropometric standard
▸ Too soft
CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

▸ Brian Catalano and Todd Coolidge (2006)

- Designing a hospital bed that would be used and

manufactured in China

▸ Ismail Wilson Taifa and Darshak A. Desai (2016)

- Assessment on carrying out to know the health issue of all

students who are using poorly designed class room furniture
RESEARCH PARADIGM
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

To assess the chair in terms of the current situations, the current

standard basis, and the current performance, the research is
required to answer the following inquiry:

1. What is current state of the chair used by dialysis centers in

Caraga Region?
2. What are gaps of dialysis chair?
3. How can the researchers address the gap?
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

4. How does the current dialysis chair affect the patient in terms
of comfort sitting and strain injuries?
5. The variation between the current chair used and proposed
ergonomically designed dialysis chair in terms of:
5.1. Physical structure;
5.2. Material structure;
5.3. Function;
6. What is the significant relationship between the
proposed ergonomically designed dialysis chair and the
dialysis patients?
SCOPE AND LIMITATION
▸ Three (3) dialysis center found in the Butuan City accredited by
the Department of Health Caraga Regional Office namely:

1. Dialysis Unit at Manuel J. Santos Hospital

2. Nephrology Center of Caraga, Inc. (NCCI)
3. BMC – Nephro Synergies, Inc.

▸ Specifically on the chair design used by the patient during the

treatment.

▸ The study is limited only to the design of dialysis chair used in

the dialysis center here in the region.
RESEARCH DESIGN
▸ Evaluative - Correlational Method

Evaluative
- because the researcher will perform an
assessment on the existing dialysis chair used by
dialysis centers

Correlational
- because it will show the significant relationship
between the anthropometric measurements of the
patients and dialysis chairs to be developed by the
researchers.
RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT, POPULATION AND
SAMPLES
RESEARCH ENVIRONMENT, POPULATION AND
SAMPLES
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE

▸ The researchers will be using

Purposive Sampling Method
which belongs to the category of
non-probability.
😉