Blood Pressure Cuff

Don D · May 2004

Well, we have the post about the pills being available at work. What about a Blood Pressure Cuff? The HR Assistant has for some years had in in her office and people drop in throughout the day. I've satisfied myself that she is not 'giving any accompanying advice', just helping people monitor their BP. I'm not terribly comfortable with it though.

Gillian3 · May 2004

Maybe your place of business sends blood pressure up the wall? So long as the employees are taking their own blood pressure with those over the counter devices and the HR person is not giving advice I guess it's OK, although I would be concerned about the accuracy of the do it yourself approach and decisions that are made, maybe based on inaccurate readings. Hopefully, if a person test high they go and see a doctor. If you quit allowing this practice, what would employees think? How would you communicate your discontinuance is you discontinue?

deniseE · May 2004

If you decide to discontinue this practice, maybe you could offset it a bit by holding a Health Fair for your ee's. Invite some fitness clubs, local health groups...and have some diagnostic testing available either free or reduced cost.

This will show that you're still interested in their health and well-being...but want to make sure the information is accurate and not posing any liability to the company.

Craig D · May 2004

Don, you might look at this as a preventive measure. It could prevent some one from having a stroke at work, if they are told what their BP is and they go to a physcian right away. We do it here because we have ee's on medication and they need it monitored to insure that the medication is working properly.

Pork · May 2004

We too have one and we allow persons who are concerned with their health or daily feelings to get their BP check. When it is outside of their norm, we encourage the ee to go see his/her physician.

As long as the HR person is not giving medical advice or medical opinion it is good to have around. It is like the CUFF in the Wal-Mart store, take it read about the BP and react toward the education you just received.

PORK

hrwoman · May 2004

We also have a blood pressure cuff at work. Our Corporate Safety Director if asked will take employees blood pressure and if it is high, encourages them to see their physicians. We haven't had a prob with it and most employees like the fact they can go to him and get an accurate reading.

rad · May 2004

I'm impressed that so many people can take their own blood pressure.

Don D · May 2004

As I mentioned, the device is in the HR Department. The assistant has them have a seat in her office and pumps the thing up and both of them read the results. She was trained by the nurse we at one time had. The employee makes his/her own decision following that. I've just not been terribly comfortable with the whole thing, but the above posts put me at ease. Except for Gillian3's x:-).

safety · May 2004

Is this a device that requires the use of a stethoscope? Is so there is no way the wearer of the cuff can read the results as one has to hear for the pulse through the scope. If this is a device that is self-reading then I can see how the assistant and ee can both read the results. What would be the issue with this device and why is it so concerning?

Gillian3 · May 2004

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 05-26-04 AT 03:36PM (CST)[/font][br][br]Don - my goal is to keep the blood pressure high for others.

marc · May 2004

Other than making sure no medical advice is given my only other concern is that the device is used properly. The lady in the next door office is a certified trainer in this area. She recently went to her doctor and his new nurse administered the BP test. When the Doctor and she went over the results, my office neighbor informed the doctor of the procedural errors the nurse had made which resulted in incorrect readings. The doctor repeated the test and sure enough, got a correct reading. He remarked that he had wondered why all the BP numbers appeared to be so high recently and now he knew.

Even those that should know how to do this type of procedure can make mistakes as illustrated above.

Blood Pressure Cuff

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