BariatricSource

By David Stawarz

Steve Salomon remembers a time when he would walk through the hospital, and other nurses would say, “Oh great, here comes Steve. He can handle the heavy patient.”

Salomon, an RN with an MBA, has been in healthcare for over thirty years. Moving from the clinical world to industry, his focus has been on skin and wound care, but in recent years, he has also concentrated on bariatric products.

“There are north of 15 million adults in the U.S. that are categorized as obese,” according to Salomon, “and through about 2012, the average compound annual growth rate is expected to be 17.3%.”

Today, Salomon works as Senior Marketing and Major Account Manager for Principle Business Enterprises (PBE), maker of the Tranquility brand of absorbent products, including a line of bariatric-sized products.

“As the number of obese patients increases, the need for specially designed bariatric products is rapidly becoming apparent,” Salomon says.

“On top of functional design issues, the overall industry challenge is getting something that properly fits this part of the population,” according to Salomon. “Though there is some degree of standardization in normal sized products, the term ‘bariatric’ is not standard. What one company calls bariatric may correspond to another company’s extra-large.”

Salomon points to the wide degree of difference in incontinence products. As an example, PBE offers bariatric products with waist sizes up to 90-inches available, while other bariatric product lines only reach the 50-, 60-, or 70-inch range.

Providing care for the increasing number of obese patients introduces new requirements and difficulties. Salomon gives an example from his work with Hill-Rom, a support surface manufacturer. After two years of research they found that 7.5% of the population weighed between 251 and 500 pounds and that, though Medicare uses 350 pounds as the benchmark for obesity, because of differing mass distribution people between 251 and 350 pounds may still need a wider than standard bed.

Perhaps because standardization of sizing has been, and still is, a major unresolved issue, the demand for bariatric products is high. The customer response following the release of Hill-Rom’s bariatric bed was overwhelming, says Salomon.

“Initially,” he recalls, “when we produced the products and got them out the door we couldn’t keep up with production.”

Salomon points to a CDC study of obesity trends to demonstrate the drastic increase in obesity. In 1985, the first year represented in the study, only eight states had over 10% of their adult population categorized as obese. 1994 was both the first year that data was available for every state and the first year in which every state had over 10% of the adult population classified as obese. By 2007, the study shows that in nearly all states the percentage increased to over 20; in three states, it was over 30.

“The use of bariatric products is limited only by the lack of awareness of their availability,” according to Salomon. “As time passes, the technology in bariatric products, in bariatric surgeries, and even in the design of assisted living and nursing facilities will continue to evolve. It can’t happen too soon.”