Burlington, Kansas

Patty Thomsen, office manager at Coffey County Health System Physician Clinic in Burlington, says their old scale scared little kids. "It was an eyesore, big and black, and small children were afraid to get on it. It was inaccurate weighing heavier adults. I'd say, 'Wow! You lost 20 pounds?' I would ask them to get back on the scale, and it would show 20 pounds the other way. We also wanted to upgrade our baby scale. So I started researching on the Internet."

Patty called Jeramy Jackson at Electronic Scale Systems Inc. in Kansas City and discovered she could afford to purchase several scales and stay on budget. Now the clinic has a new eye-level physician scale, handrail scale, wheelchair scale and baby scale. "The scales are quick. I like that, especially with children. They can hang onto the handrails and that helps them stay still. These scales are a huge improvement over what we had."

Barron, Wisconsin

It seems surprising that a community of modest size, blessed with an abundance of natural lakes, should also possess a community center with a huge swimming pool, hot tub, aqua massage, tanning beds, a weight room, an aerobics room, racquetball courts, and an impressive theater where the local theatrical club stages plays.

It originally came as a gift that grew. In 1988, the Wallace H. Jerome Foundation Inc. offered a gift of $1,000,000 to the Barron community with a challenge to raise matching funds. The community matched and surpassed the Jerome gift and went on to fund the $2.65 million project.

Angie Buckley, executive director of the center, was not pleased with their original weighing equipment. "If people leaned a certain way, the weight fluctuated. Older people had to lean back to read their weight, and suddenly they weighed five pounds more or less. Thanks to Rice Lake Weighing Systems, we now have an accurate and modern scale!"

Cleveland, Ohio

Amy Andler is a community health services liaison from the Cuyahoga County Board of Mental Retardation/
Developmental Disabilities. "We were using a portable wheelchair scale out in the hallway, and people had to get out of the chair so we could weigh the chair and then get back in to be weighed in their chair. Many of our clients are fragile or high risk. It was too much movement for them and inefficient for us."

Tim Gunn, Ohio Counting Scale Inc., suggested installing a Rice Lake RoughDeck® and attaching the 450-pound exam table to the deck. The 420i Indicator is hung on the wall. The motorized exam bed can be raised to a sitting position. Clients can transfer more safely and comfortably directly to the table for examination and weighment.

"Finding a way to measure a patient's weight without having to juggle a wheelchair or reweigh the wheelchair has been very helpful to the team in our clinic."