October 20, 2014

Thanks to a Catholic Health Initiatives grant and the efforts of Occupational & Environmental Safety, Risk Management Services, TriHealth has updated its safe patient-handling equipment in many locations in the past year, helping to dramatically cut down on staff strains and sprains.

With a $42,000 Safety Grant, and insurance rebates from CHI,  twelve new, modern lifts were installed in rooms in the critical care units at Good Samaritan. Bethesda Butler, Bethesda North, Hospice of Cincinnati and TriHealth Evendale also received new safe patient-handling equipment, made possible with insurance rebates from CHI.

In addition, Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Sciences received three patient-handling devices that will help educate future caregivers on updated equipment and prolong their careers in patient care by minimizing their risk of injury.

The equipment (introduced only about a decade ago) protects staff and patients alike. Devices allow for safe, secure and dignified ways to transfer, lift and adjust patients. The equipment has helped successfully reduce the most common health care workplace injuries, says Mike Gabennesch, corporate safety officer, Occupational and Environmental Safety.

"Across the U.S., the No. 1 team member injury in health care in terms of frequency and severity is strains and sprains due to patient handling," he says.

Since the devices were introduced, injuries at TriHealth locations related to patient handling and movement declined in the 2013 fiscal year by 39 percent and again in the 2014 fiscal year by 20 percent.

TriHealth primarily uses a few variations of patient-handling and movement equipment. "No one piece is appropriate for all situations," Gabennesch says. These devices include:

• Maxi Sky: a ceiling-mounted patient lift with handheld controls
• Maxi Move: a portable, battery-powered, passive, sling patient lift
• SARA Plus: a sit-to-stand device that provides balance, stepping and walking training
• SARA Stedy (not steady): a patient-assisted device that supports everyday activities, such as getting to the bathroom

Ahead of the Rest

Future health care providers at Good Samaritan College of Nursing and Health Sciences also have started to learn how to use this equipment. Occupational and Environmental Safety, Risk Management Services paid to install a ceiling-mounted patient lift at the college where hundreds of students already have been trained on the equipment.

About 75 percent of graduates from the college are hired at TriHealth, so they have an advantage when they start in our facilities. Few - if any - nursing colleges in Ohio have this equipment, says Joann Sullivan-Mann, simulation and skills lab coordinator for the college.

"Being familiar with all of the equipment and how to use it, that comfort level is very valuable," she says. "Then (nurses) can concentrate on other parts of care, rather than say, 'I don't know how to use this, so I won't use it,' and put themselves at risk for injury."