Properly dosing medication is of utmost importance to effective patient care. Many medications are dosed by patient weight and inaccurate patient weighments can affect the efficacy of medication or cause adverse effects. One cause for inaccurate patient weight data occurs during weight data collection, when the healthcare professional records the incorrect value into the patient’s chart, or if the recorded weight is in the incorrect unit of measure. Most digital patient scales have the ability to toggle between pounds and kilograms. If the healthcare professional collects the patient’s weight in the incorrect unit, whether intentional or not, it can lead to calculation errors, inaccurate dosing, and detrimental patient outcomes.  

Rice Lake manufactures and distributes physician scales, wheelchair scales, pediatric scales, and more—providing a scale for every stage of life. All Rice Lake patient scales are equipped with unit of measure locking and are backed by our 24/7 customer support team. If your healthcare facility uses a Rice Lake patient scale and would like specific instructions how to lock the unit of measurement, please refer to your scale manual or watch Locking Units of Measure on Rice Lake Medical Indicators.