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TOM MURPHY
Rocky Mount Telegram
ROCKY MOUNT, N.C. - The challenge of moving patients has grown - but Dr. Willis Martin has met that challenge head-on with his new invention - the Chair-A-Table.
Martin said injuries can result to both patient and health care workers who have to lift disabled patients. The Chair-A-Table, manufactured by Amadas Industry in Suffolk, Va., helps workers handle patients safely, he said.
The first prototype of Martin's wheelchair and lift table are complete and patented. Martin estimates that the Chair-A-Table will cost between $15,000 to $20,000 and will be mass produced by a yet-to-be-named manufacturer.
"We may manufacture and market it - or subcontract for manufacturing," he said. "We may partner with other companies for marketing and distribution.
"Those details have not been worked out and will depend on what agreements we will get."
Martin said he has been working on the project for about 2 years. The Chair-A-Table took about four or five months to build, he said.
Worker safety groups are pushing facilities to adopt patient lift policies and asking states to encourage them, Martin said. The first law requiring health care facilities to adopt a lift policy went into effect in January in Texas, and other states, including California and New Jersey, are considering similar laws, he said.
"The idea is simple - patients are often heavier, and health care workers suffer back and related injuries," Martin said. "The injuries pose high costs to employers."
The challenge of moving patients is eliminated with Martin's Chair-A-Table.
"It's the only one in the world," he said. "If a patient is wheeled in from a car to the examination room, that patient would normally have to leave the chair to get on the table.
"With the Chair-A-Table, they never get out of their chair. They're never moved."
Martin, who retired in September after 25 years of practicing dermatology in Rocky Mount, said he has had people come into his office in wheelchairs that his staff couldn't get onto the examining table.
"I wound up working on those people by kneeling down to treat them," he said.
Martin's wife, Myra, recently backed a special wheelchair onto the lowered Chair-A-Table during its unveiling June 15 at Nash Community College. The chair locks in place.
Martin said N.C. State University bioengineering students helped come up with the design, including the car door locks that hold the seat in place.
"It's held in place with 5,000 pounds of force," he said. "Foot controls lift the patient as high as 40 inches.
"The table can go as low as 14 inches off the floor and can rotate 360 degrees. A normal lift table only goes from 25 to 40 inches off the floor."
Martin said the wheels are removed from the chair once it's locked into the table, and the chair back and foot rest move to become a flat exam table.
"I believe this invention will reduce injuries for patients and the health care workers who lift them," he said. "A standard power table will lift 400 to 450 pounds.
"The Chair-A-Table will lift more than 1,200 pounds. It would be classified as a bariaric table that lifts obese people."
East Carolina University has one of the leading medical schools for bariarics in the country, Martin said.
"Obesity is a big problem," he said. "For example, 300 out of 900 obese patients will weigh more than 300 pounds.
"A nurse lifts about 1.8 tons per shift. Nurses' aides, licensed practical nurses and orderlies will lift 5 tons per shift and that causes in excess of 95,000 wheelchair accidents a year."
People are getting heavier - probably 10 percent per year, Martin said. Workers' compensation is in excess of $1 billion for health care workers injured lifting patients, he said.
When the chair is back together and rolled away, a single cushion makes the table ready for any patient, Martin said.
"It is a prototype that I plan to mass produce and market across the country and around the world," he said.
Martin, 60, said he could have continued his medical practice and helped hundreds of people a week. But he said he saw the opportunity to help people in another way.
"This invention will help thousands of people worldwide," he said. "It will go on even after I'm dead and gone."
Martin said he also plans to develop other applications for his new Chair-A-Table.
"You can put it in a van seat, have it turn 90 degrees and a patient in the chair never is touched or lifted," he said. "I'm also looking at a portable version for nursing homes.
"It will give patients independence and can be attached to the driver's seat. I'm also working on a scooter that will give handicapped people so much more freedom than they've ever had."
The Americans With Disability Act will give physicians a $10,000 tax credit for buying it and it operates off 110 volts.
Martin said more than 50 people invested a total of $2 million in 14 days to fund development of the Chair-A-Table prototype. The invention will be transported for testing to Carilion Health Care Center in Roanoke, Va., under the supervision of Dr. Jim Foster, a surgeon and wound care management specialist.
The Chair-A-Table will go on the market in the fall or spring, Martin said.
"I think we've done remarkably well," he said. "We've only spent about $1 million of the $2 million raised at this point, and our stockholders are excited."
Martin graduated from N.C. State University in 1969. He received his medical degree in 1974 from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and completed his internship at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
He spent 2 years in the U.S. Navy as a naval flight surgeon and received the Lushers Award for being the U.S. Navy's outstanding flight surgeon. After his military tour, Martin returned to Chapel Hill to complete his residency and was chief resident from 1979 to 1980.
Martin began his Rocky Mount medical practice in 1980.
Information from: Rocky Mount Telegram, http://www.rockymounttelegram.com |
