Medical Scales: Choosing the Right Scale for Your Practice
A clinical weight can determine a drug dose, a fluid balance or a nutritional plan. That makes the scale a measuring instrument with requirements, not a bathroom accessory.
Match the scale to the patient
- Column scale — ambulant adults. Combines a platform with a measuring rod so height and weight are captured together. The consultation room standard. See column scales.
- Flat / floor scale — a low deck for patients unsteady on a step. Safer in geriatric and rehabilitation settings. Flat scales.
- Chair scale — patients who cannot stand safely, with the chair tared out. Chair scales.
- Infant scale — contoured tray, fine graduation. Infant scales.
Graduation and capacity
Graduation is the smallest increment the scale displays. For adults, 100 g is normal. For infants you want 5–10 g: early weight change in a newborn is measured in grams, and a 100 g graduation hides it entirely.
Capacity should have headroom above your heaviest expected patient. A scale operating at the top of its range loses accuracy.
Approval class
Scales used for clinical measurement should be of an approved class appropriate to the use. If a weight informs dosing or a clinical decision, a domestic scale is not adequate regardless of how precise it looks.
Calibration
Put clinical scales on a documented calibration schedule — at least annually, and after any move. Moving a scale between rooms changes its levelling, and an unlevel scale reads wrong consistently.
Check the spirit level and the zero before the first patient of the day. It takes seconds and catches most problems.
Practical points
- Solid, level floor. A scale on soft vinyl over an uneven screed will drift.
- Hold/damping function settles a reading on a moving patient — essential for infants and useful for anyone unsteady.
- Power. Mains is fine for a fixed room; battery matters for anything that travels.
Go deeper
- Approved-class scales: what Singapore clinics need to know
- Baby and infant scales compared
- Chair and wheelchair scales
- Stadiometers and height measurement accuracy
- Calibration schedules for clinical scales
Browse the range in our medical scales collection.