Meeting the elimination needs of people with reduced mobility is basic care. If this basic care is not provided properly, the patient's health and the institution's reputation deteriorate, which indirectly leads to more and more expensive medical treatment. The ICK medical device, which has collection bags, qualifies as a prescribed medical device, so its purchase cost can be shared and not entirely borne by the user or the host institution. For the European market, it is possible to choose the marketing method for each Member State, either over the counter or as a prescription product.

75% reduction in the weight of waste (saving money)

It is normal to use adult diapers for people who are totally incontinent, but it is less logical to use them for people with reduced mobility, continence or light incontinence. They have the advantage of being disposable, but with the quality defect of being considered, after use, as foul-smelling waste, with bacteriologically contaminated faeces, weighing up to 1 kg, which must be hermetically sealed in a single waste bag, or collected in the corridors of the establishment in 100-litre bin bags, with the prior necessity of washing hands or using a hydro-alcoholic spray every time caregivers touch door handles or switches, which are also used by staff performing clean-up tasks. The cost of transporting adult incontinence diaper, which are classified as household waste and incinerated at a distance, is almost €300 per tonne. With the ICK medical device, the evacuation of faeces and urine from a person with reduced mobility is identical to the evacuation of faeces and urine from an able-bodied person (evacuation via the WC or via the bedpan washer). The only disposable item in the ICK system is the disposable collector, which has to be thrown away after a bowel movement. This represents a very significant reduction in volume and weight of waste.

Enables an obese patient in hospital to return home sooner thanks to the device's handling aid, which requires only one caregiver.

After an accident, stroke or surgery, it is not possible to return home due to a lack of autonomy. Physiotherapists and occupational therapists in aftercare and rehabilitation clinics are required to re-educate patients to transform their movements into functional gestures. The ICK medical device is intended as an alternative for patients in these clinics who are temporarily unable to move around the toilet on their own and whose progress towards regaining independence is slow. The proposed alternative is to continue physiotherapy at home, which could significantly reduce the overall cost of care. This alternative is not possible for obese patients as it requires two carers to be available and coordinated in the clinic to manage the elimination. The ICK medical device, for use in the clinic or at home, is designed to allow the elimination of obese patients to be managed by a single caregiver. Thus, by allowing patients to return home earlier or by mobilising a single caregiver, the ICK medical device aims not only to simplify the caregiver's work, but also to introduce less costly organisational and work choices.

Reduces the handling and arduousness of elimination care, which indirectly contributes to the number of sick days.

The use of the ICK medical device reduces the caregiver's handling load, which is estimated at an average of 4 tonnes of cumulative weight per day. Facility managers are required to provide caregivers with all the equipment they need to reduce musculoskeletal disorders. Despite these precautions, there have been cases of sick leave due to back pain, which may require some caregivers to find adapted workstations. In the absence of some care staff, all incompressible tasks have to be carried out, and the use of temporary employment agencies requires permanent staff to inform the temporary workers about the institution's practices. Ensuring the loyalty of nursing staff and managing any incidents so that the functioning of a department is not compromised is a constant concern for healthcare managers. The ICK medical device is designed to help with handling and protect the backs of caregivers in hospitals and at home. By better channelling and collecting faeces and urine, the ICK medical device also aims to reduce the time carers spend on elimination and change the way they do it, reducing the need for long intimate toileting sessions and making carers' jobs more attractive. It's a way of making the job more attractive and indirectly making it easier to recruit staff.

Reduced use of disposable bed and seat protectors (saving money)

For users of adult diaper, there is always a risk of leakage when the patient moves in bed, causing the adult diaper to be repositioned around the user's pelvis and the diaper's fastenings to loosen. Similarly, leaks can occur after several micturitions in the same adult diaper cover. When a carer has to intervene for a change, with a leak on the support, the disposable sheet must be changed under the patient, the nightdress must be changed, the sheets may have to be changed with the patient still in bed, and intimate hygiene must be carried out on a clean support, after two changes of pairs of gloves. The succession of all these basic operations consumes disposable underpads, disposable toilet gloves and laundry costs (nightdress, top and bottom sheets) which can represent 5€ in supplies, not counting a minimum of 10 minutes' nursing intervention. The disposable collector of the ICK device is more expensive to produce than a adult diaper, but it offers a wider range of services.

it consists of :

• ✔ a removable flexible collector under the anus/meatus from which the urine content is pumped, with no possibility of reflux,
• ✔ a textile mesh envelope with solid side loop/hook fasteners, surrounding the user's pelvis.

This technology is designed to intervene, before a need for elimination, by creating a space under the anus/meatus and increasing the convergence of stools and urine towards the removable collector, thus ensuring their entrapment, reducing the importance of leaks on supports and all the associated direct and indirect costs.

Greater flexibility in scheduling home visits thanks to the device's autonomy and hygienic waiting conditions.

With the use of the ICK medical device, the flexible removable collector has sufficient capacity to collect faeces and several micturitions, so the person with reduced mobility, at home, can eliminate without being soiled, without waiting for a carer to arrive. The ICK medical device separates the patient's need to eliminate from that of a carer, with no consequences for either.

Indirectly, this possibility offers those who plan the times when carers are needed at home a little more flexibility, in the following ways:

• ✔ adding an extra shift for a carer
• ✔ moving backwards or before an intervention
• ✔ allowing a carer to arrive later in the morning
• ✔ allowing a night porter to arrive later in the day

Reduce the time-wasting consequences of staff shortages : an adult diaper that is too full for too long

To supplement the permanent staff of clinics and residences caring for people with reduced mobility, it is frequently necessary to call on short contracts and use temporary employment agencies at short notice. Despite the responsiveness of team leaders and the willingness of permanent carers to change their schedules, half of the workforce still has unavoidable work to do. As a result, operations are cut short and staff are under a great deal of stress. Not being able to respond to a bell call, a third of which concern a need to eliminate, can result in soiled armchairs or beds, patients with soiled clothes, and floors that need to be washed. All the consequences of not responding immediately to a need for disposal are very time-consuming. The ICK medical device aims to treat the origin of all these leaks, to minimise their impact in terms of nursing time and indirectly costs.