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Hi

I have been offered a room in a medical clinic to startup a podiatry clinic. However I am not sure how I can operate in a room that has carpet and secondly they are insisting that I share the room with GP's outside these hours. Can anyone provide some advise on how to overcome these issues...? I have searched for some sort of collapsable portable pod chair but there does'nt seem to be any...?

Cheers

Sticks

:)

Think you might struggle.

Carpet in a podiatry room would be impossible, refloor to vinyl.

good luck!

scott

Hi Sticks,

I can't advise you on the business side of things (not my forte! ). Would be a good idea to try and talk to another pod who is already in a similar set-up to get the main idea of set up and equipment requirements etc.

In regard to the carpet, the infection control guidelines state that:

"In premises where there is no alternative to carpeted floors, the use of a hard wearing durable plastic carpet protector of at least 1.5 metre square, such as those available from an office supplier may be used beneath the foot rest of a podiatry treatment chair until refurbishment. This alternative is only suitable as a temporary measure until a vinyl floor is installed."
http://www.apodc.com.au/infection/na...on_control.pdfhttp://www.apodc.com.au/infection/na...on_control.pdf

In regard to the collapsible portable chair, I haven't seen one either, and depending on the room size, a physio plinth might be more useful as it is narrower than a normal pod chair and can be wheeled aside for when the GPs use the room. It's also useful as you can have the patient either sitting (for GTs) or lying down (for Biomech).

I would suggest talking to a medical rep eg. from Briggate, for advice on set up as they have done this many times already for other pods...they usually have some good suggestions regarding equipment.

Good luck with your new clinic! :)

Donna

I'm currently working in a medical centre and i share a room with a GP. It's not perfect but work well as a step to creating a stand alone clinic.

I use a big plastic mat. You can get em from office works. They are those mats people use to put under office chairs on carpet. This works nicely, and very rarely does it not catch all the debris.

I have an oldish chair that goes up and down, but becomes a flat bed. When you bring the back up the arms pop up with it too. You can still get from the likes of Briggate i think, but I'd look second hand if i were you. When the GP is in the room, it just all lies flat and can be used as an exmination plynth. It will probably be an improvement for the GP as alot don't have ones that go up/down.

The other thing you will need is some sort of cabinet on wheels. This has my drill etc. It has 4 drawers. I use 3, and the GP uses 1.

You might even be able to use the medical centres comp system if they have one. I do all my notes on medical director and use their booking system. Very handy! Also means you can use the system for mails outs etc, which i have been able to do. Mediacal driector enables specific mail merging so you can notify any specific group directly you might want to target...

I get the feeling I'm quite lucky with my set up, but i don't see why if they have it all there you shouldn't be able to use it. I'm using their internet as i type!

good luck!


Tom

We have a similar set up to you in one of our practices and share a Metron podiatry chair (03 9775 1234) it works well for both the Pods and other specialists using it.

Regards and good luck
Stuart