Safe Patient Handling
What is Safe Patient Handling?
Safe Patient Handling is a discipline founded on evidence-based best practices for safely moving patients in all settings and in ways which minimize potential injuries to both patients and employees. Employees can move patients safely and efficiently, while increasing both their own job satisfaction and the satisfaction of their patients.
Why Safe Patient Handling?
As patient mobility decreases and care givers move into the latter part of their careers, patient handling injuries are ever increasing in number and severity. The risks from moving (or not moving!) patients include not only patient drops, falls, and pressure ulcers, but also injuries to care givers.
At many facilities, injuries related to patient handling are the largest single driver of workers’ compensation costs. In addition, the physical demands of the job are consistently the most salient reason given for leaving the nursing profession - leading to higher turnover and staff replacement costs.
As obesity reaches epidemic proportions in the patient population, the severity of risks related to patient handling increase exponentially. Heavier loads lead to more severe and expensive injuries to both patients and workers. More workers are required to move fewer obese patients, increasing risk exposure by multiples. Safe Patient Handling best practices and equipment allow one or two employees to move patients of any size in any setting.
How does Safe Patient Handling work?
Through a customized program of training, equipment, and in-house champions, negative outcomes and costs due to patient handling injuries are measurably and verifiably reduced to a minimum. The process begins with an assessment of your facility’s needs based on several factors including:
- Analysis of past patient and employee injury data
- Evaluation of your facility’s physical characteristics
- Interviews with all key stakeholders and participants
- Unit-by-unit assessment of training and equipment needs
Next steps include:
- Cost-benefit and return on investment analyses
- Presentation to senior leadership to “sell” the case for a Safe Patient Handling investment
- Staff-driven vendor and equipment selection
“Selling” the program to senior leadership is usually the most straight-forward step in the process. The business case and return on investment are usually compelling enough to elicit an almost immediate approval because a safe patient handling program can truly be a “quick fix” in many cases, and net returns on investment can be seen in as little as one year. Our program includes an annual review of your program’s results and assistance with follow-up presentations to senior leadership.
What can Safe Patient Handling do for me?
A solution is at hand in the form of safe patient handling programs and equipment, but it is just one program among many fighting for funding in a cost-constrained environment. Vendors can readily offer workers’ compensation data, but lack the background or ability to build a complete business case for a program or show how to get the most value out of a program at your facility.
For your facility, SRC’s Safe Patient Handling Program can:
- Find the right level of equipment for the maximum benefit at your facility, considering new construction, retrofits, and portable versus ceiling-mounted systems
- Provide a robust and verifiable quantification of the total costs and benefits of the best program in a solid, investment-grade business case which will survive scrutiny
- Reveal how to get the most value out of your Safe Patient Handling Program through additional, low-cost measures few even consider
- Provide operational guidance on how to implement a program, including training and lift teams
If desired, safe patient handling team leaders from your facility can train at Stanford’s new multi-million dollar simulation facility, rapidly gaining expert-level proficiency in a controlled manner to take back to your facility.
Who benefits most from Safe Patient Handling?
So how do you figure out what the best total program is for your facility, and how to build a robust business case which will survive scrutiny and budget review?
Fortunately, Stanford Risk Consulting offers a comprehensive solution for putting together the best total program for your facility with complete and verifiable financials to support it.
First developed and successfully applied in-house at Stanford Medical Center, SRC’s Safe Patient Handling Program was instrumental both in retrofitting existing facilities and in finding the right solution for the new $3 billion hospital Stanford is building. This approach has garnered multiple awards and is incorporated into the Facilities Design Guidelines for safe patient handling.
How do I get started?
Getting started is easy.
To get your safe patient handling program approved and implemented and get the most value out of it instead of just buying equipment to go in the closet, contact Ed Hall at Stanford Risk Consulting.
For More Information
Contact Ed Hall, Senior Director, Risk Management Controls & Education
(650) 736-8502
ehall@stanfordmed.org
