Hospitals are concerned with issues of patient transportation like wheelchair upkeep and maintenance, availability of transfer aides, nurses and avoiding injury to patients and staff. Wheelchair upkeep and maintenance are key issues surrounding patient mobility within an institution for the obvious reasons.

It is unfortunate that up to 40% of hospital transport wheelchairs are lost or stolen annually. This creates a shortage of wheelchairs, and patients are kept waiting on average between 30 minutes to upwards of 3.5 hours before a wheelchair can be located to transport them.

Transport chairs are swiftly replacing wheelchairs for institutional use. The theft-resistant patient transportation vehicles are difficult to lose because each one can be traced back to its original owner through it's own unique serial number. Since these chairs were developed to be pushed by an attendant, and cannot be self-propelled like the standard wheelchair, there is less interest in stealing them.

In addition, transport chairs have their own storage rack where many of them can be nested together and locked until the next use. Under these conditions, theft is virtually impossible. Some institutions have kept these chairs in operation for 12 years; that's 9 years beyond their 3-year warranty, which represents a serious return on investment.

While up to 40% of wheelchairs go missing, hospitals must pay to maintain and upkeep the remaining chairs for everyday use. Maintenance contracts are entered into, as the wheelchairs have removable parts that tend to go missing in some instances, rendering a chair inoperable or unsafe. Coasters, leg-rests, footrests and armrests are all removable and at times need to be replaced completely. The maintenance contracts can be very costly, requiring a hospital to pay for the wheelchair several times over in so many years to maintain it. With wheelchairs, there is never a return on investment.

Transport chairs have no removable parts that go missing and need to be replaced. It does have parts that can be removed with special equipment unique to the product. By all accounts, the maintenance and upkeep to transport chairs is minimal. Sunnybrook and Women's College Health Sciences Centre, which owns 200 chairs, has paid an average of $24 a year toward maintaining all of them over a 12-year period. With reports like these, one transport chair is equal to having 10 standard wheelchairs when cost and longevity are taken into account.

Nurses and aides frequently report back pain as a result of lifting patients out of the standard wheelchair or onto it. The old standard makes no provision for easy, safe patient transfers, whereas the new transport chair has taken it into account. It has arms that can be lifted up so that patients can be easily transferred onto of off of them with a side-pivot action, avoiding any injury to staff or patient. Furthermore, no lifting or bending is required to push the chair, which easily glides with the press of one handlebar, helping attendants maintain the correct posture. Its automatic brake system brings the vehicle to a smooth halt by locking instantly into place without sliding.

The issues surrounding patient transportation are being addressed daily, and by responding favorably to the concerns of doctors, nurses, aides and patients, the transport chairs have been developed to meet these issues head on.