US20140157479A1

Movatterモバイル変換

Info

Publication number: US20140157479A1
Application number: US14/076,142
Authority: US
Inventors: Jeffrey David Streep
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 2012-12-06
Filing date: 2013-11-08
Publication date: 2014-06-12

Abstract

An example garment in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure includes an article of clothing covering at least a portion of a body of a user, an access port providing an open space through the garment for a medical device, and a removable patch covering the access port.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/734,160 filed on Dec. 6, 2012.

BACKGROUND

For various reasons, healthcare professionals may need to gain access to a patient's skin. For example, the patient may require chemotherapy or dialysis treatments, or any number of other treatments. In order for the access point to be exposed for healthcare professionals to prep and access, patients arriving at healthcare facilities may need to disrobe or change into a gown.

The need to obtain access to certain parts/sites on a patient's body for examination or treatment requires that a patient wear a hospital gown. Such gowns are not suitable for street wear and do not allow a patient to move around a hospital since they have large openings enabling ready access by medical personnel for examination or treatments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Example implementations are described in the following detailed description and in reference to the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 illustrates an example garment in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example patch in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 3 illustrates a view of the example garment ofFIG. 1 during operation with a patch that is detached in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example garment in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 5 illustrates a view of the example garment ofFIG. 4 during operation with a patch that is open in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example garment in accordance with the principles disclosed herein;

FIG. 7 illustrates a view of the example garment ofFIG. 4 during operation with a patch that is open in accordance with the principles disclosed herein, and

FIG. 8 illustrates a flow diagram of a method in accordance with the principles disclosed herein.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various implementations described herein are directed to garments that can be worn by patients during medical treatment. More specifically, and as described in greater detail below, various aspects of the present disclosure are directed to a manner by which a patient may wear a garment with port access patches while receiving treatments involving chemotherapy or alike, which requires chemotherapy or dialysis ports.

Aspects of the present disclosure described herein implement an article of clothing with a patch for the body allowing medical access to a patient's body by removing the patch. According to various aspects of the present disclosure, the approach described herein allows a user to utilize a garment allowing comfort or warmth while providing the health care providers easy access to the skin to connect the devices used during the treatment, without the need to remove any clothing, to roll up or down sleeves, or otherwise manipulate clothing to receive treatment. Accordingly, the approach described herein allows for easy access to patients' ports by simply removing the patch completely or partially to uncover the port, which may then be placed back on during or after treatment. This also provides safety by preventing any tugging at the IV needle, which may cause harm to the patient and nurses if exposed to the skin.

Moreover, aspects of the present disclosure described herein also disclose garments which are suitable as regular clothing outside of a medical facility in addition to allowing the patient to remain active or mobile prior to or after they receive medical treatment. Among other things, this approach allows the user to wear garments that are fashionable. Further, the patches may be interchangeable. Accordingly, this approach advantageously provides the user with the option to wear the same shirt with different patches for a different look.

In one example in accordance with the present disclosure, a garment is provided. The garment comprises an article of clothing covering at least a portion of a body of a user, an access port providing an open space through the garment for a medical device, and a removable patch covering the access port.

In another example in accordance with the present disclosure, a method for making a garment is provided. The method comprises providing an article of clothing covering at least a portion of a body of a user, the article of clothing having a removable patch situated over an access point, the access point receiving a medical device to be applied to the body of the user. The garment is used for receiving medical treatment.

FIG. 1 illustrates anexample garment100, which provides nurses and other medical staff easy access to patient's skin and implanted ports in accordance with an implementation. Thegarment100 according to the present disclosure comprises aremovable patch110, which is described in greater detail below. It should be readily apparent that thegarment100 depicted inFIG. 1 represents an illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed, modified, or rearranged without departing from a scope of the present disclosure. For example, whilegarment100 illustrated inFIG. 1 includes only oneremovable patch110, the system may actually comprise a plurality of removable patches, and only one has been shown and described for simplicity.

Thegarment100 may be used by medical technicians and nurses to remove thepatch110 without exposing any other portion of the patient's body to administer treatment. In one implementation, thegarment100 may include an article of apparel, such as a shirt, which covers the upper body of the user. Thegarment100 may be any configuration suitable for covering the body. For example, it may be a long or short sleeve shirt. In another implementation, it may be a sleeveless shirt. In further implementation, it may be a pullover, or jacket-type shirt or sweatshirt. More specifically, the shirt may have a crew neck, a v-neck, a zipper front, or a buttoned front. Thegarment100 may be worn by children and adult patients.

Thepatch110 and the cut out in thegarment100 may be used as the access point. In one implementation, thepatch110 may be any type of material such as velcro, fabric, plastic or alike. In another implementation, thepatch110 may be a mix of different types of materials. Thepatch110 may have a size large enough to fit 4×6 adhesive or alike, over a needle to secure the needle in place and also allows for the patch to be placed back over during treatment if desired. Thepatch110 may be placed on different places on thegarment100. For example, the patches can be on the left and/or right sides of the garment at the chest, abdomen, and/or arm. Further, thepatch110 may be placed on the sleeve portion of thegarment100.

In one implementation, thepatch110 may be provided with thegarment100. In another implementation, additional patches may be bought separately in numerous colors and designs (ex: pink for breast cancer, red with hearts, or customized with logos for professional, collegiate football teams). In various implementations, theentire garment100 may be, or may be formed of, the same material as thepatch110. For example, thegarment100 and thepatch110 may be formed of neoprene.

FIG. 2 illustrates anexample patch200 in accordance with an implementation. More specifically,FIG. 2 shows thepatch110 ofFIG. 1 in greater detail. Thepatch200 is shown to have a curved rectangular shape. It should be readily apparent that thepatch200 represents an illustration and that its shape, material, color, and other characteristics may be changed without departing from a scope of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates anexample garment300 in accordance with an implementation. Thegarment300 according to the present disclosure comprises anaccess port310 and aremovable patch320. It should be readily apparent that thegarment300 depicted inFIG. 3 represents an illustration and that other components may be added or existing components may be removed, modified, or rearranged without departing from a scope of the present disclosure. For example, while thegarment300 illustrated inFIG. 3 includes only oneremovable patch320, the system may actually comprise a plurality of removable patches, and only one has been shown and described for simplicity.

Theaccess port310 may be an opening which passes through thegarment300 to provide access to a receiving element or a portion of a person's skin. Theaccess port310 may be surrounded with a type of material that thepatch320 can attach to (e.g., velco, adhesive). In various implementations, the material surrounding theaccess port310 may be formed of an elastically stretchable material. The material may be stretched and deformed to provide greater access to the skin under theaccess port310. Theaccess port310 may be aligned with an area of skin on a user which must be accessed. Further, the material may be used for preventing shrinkage to access port, for example, after washing and/or use.

Theaccess port310 may be of sufficient size to secure one or more of a variety of medical appliances, including, but not limited to, a G-tube, a catheter, a medical monitor or alike.

Thepatch320 may cover theaccess point310 completely when thepatch320 is attached to theaccess point310. More specifically, the seam around the edge of thepatch320 with velcro may be secured to the underside that matches up to the velcro on thegarment300.

As illustrated inFIG. 3, thepatch320 may be completely removable patch. In another implementation, the patch may be used a flap instead of being totally removed.FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate such an example.

As shown inFIG. 4, thegarment400 may include aflap410. Theflap410 may be attached to thegarment400, and may be positioned to cover the access port in its closed position. Theflap410 may be equipped with holding elements to hold itself in place so that it may be positioned over the access port in the closed position.

Further, as shown inFIG. 5, theflap520 may be attached to thegarment500, and may allow theaccess port510 to be exposed in its open position. Theflap520 may be held in place by securing elements such as hook, loop fasteners, velcro and/or alike. Thus, a healthcare professional may open theflap520 and access theport510. Further, if needed, the healthcare professional may stretch theaccess port510 to broaden the access.

In one implementation, theflap520 may include a fabric panel sewn to thegarment500 across the top of an access port and having hooks and loop strips located on respective sides of theflap520 andaccess port510. This enables theflap520 to be folded down to expose theaccess port510 to allow access to the user's body for proceeding with the medical treatment. In another implementation, the hooks and loop fasteners can be replaced with straps, buttons, etc.

In one implementation, theflap520 is shown to be located under the chest area on thegarment500. In other implementation, the flap may be located in other parts of the garment.FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate one of those examples in accordance with an implementation.

FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an arrangement where the

garments

600 and700 have

patches

610 and710 respectively, which are placed on a user's top of the shoulder.

Thepatch720 may be attached to thegarment700 at one or more attachment points. Thepatch720 may be detached from thegarment700 at the attachment points. The attachment points may extend around the entire perimeter of thepatch720 or extend only along select portions of the perimeter. The location of the attachment points may allow access to medical devices. For example, the attachment may be located along the upper edge of thepatch720. When thepatch720 is detached or opened, the chest/shoulder of the patient may be exposed, allowing access to a medical device such as a cardiac monitor.

Turning now to the operation of thegarment100,FIG. 8 illustrates an example process flow diagram800 in accordance with an implementation. In one implementation, theprocess800 in response to receiving an instruction from a user to use thegarment100 during a medical treatment. For example, a chemotherapy patient or dialysis patient may put the garment on and go to treatment.

Theprocess800 may begin atblock805, where a removable patch is provided with the garment. In particular, the garment includes a removable patch that covers an access port on the garment.

Atblock810, the access port allows an open space on the garment. On such space, the user's skin is exposed. Atblock815, a medical device may be received through the space created by the access port. For example, a user may remove the patch during a medical treatment and receive the treatment with the medical device received through the open space. In one implementation, the medical device may be kept in place with the help of the patch. In other implementation, the patch may be kept fully detached. Once the treatment is over and the medical device is removed, the patch may be placed back on the access port to cover the open space.

The present disclosure has been shown and described with reference to the foregoing exemplary implementations. Although specific examples have been illustrated and described herein it is manifestly intended that the scope of the claimed subject matter be limited only by the following claims and equivalents thereof. It is to be understood, however, that other forms, details, and examples may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure that is defined in the following claims.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. A garment, comprising:

an article of clothing covering at least a portion of a body of a user;

an access port providing an open space through the article of clothing for a medical device; and

a removable patch covering the access port.

2. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the patch is completely separable from the garment.

3. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the patch is opened while staying attached to the garment at one attachment point.

4. The garment ofclaim 3, wherein the patch is adapted to cover the access port in a closed position and expose the access port in an open position.

5. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the access port comprises a material surrounding the edges of the access port to adjust the shape of the open space.

6. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the access port comprises a material surrounding the edges of the access port for the patch to attach to the access port.

7. The garment ofclaim 6, wherein the material is velcro.

8. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the patch comprises a material surrounding the edges of the patch to attach to the access port.

9. The garment ofclaim 8, wherein the material is velcro.

10. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the access port receives the medical device to be applied through the open space to the user's body.

11. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the garment is a long sleeve shirt.

12. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the access port is aligned with a body part of a user.

13. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the access port and removable patch are located under the chest area of the user.

14. The garment ofclaim 1, further comprising a plurality of access ports and removable patches.

15. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the removable patch has a color and design.

16. The garment ofclaim 1, wherein the removable patch is fabric.

17. A method of making a garment, comprising:

providing an article of clothing covering at least a portion of a body of a user, the article of clothing having a removable patch situated over an access point, the access point receiving a medical device to be applied to the body of the user,

wherein the garment is used for receiving medical treatment.

18. The method ofclaim 17, further comprising allowing the user to choose the removable patch from a plurality of removable patches over the access point to accessorize the article of clothing.