Employee Safety Equals Patient Safety
March 31, 2006An international study, by a leading research firm, found that most accidents involving healthcare workers in hospital settings are due to improper lifting techniques and body positioning. Phelps Memorial Hospital Center has placed a special emphasis on preventing this type of injury.
According to a report by the Netherlands based Knibbe & Knibbe, LOCOmotion Research and Health Consultancy, “The majority of employee accidents in today’s health care organizations are ergonomic in nature.” Ergonomics is the applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely. It is also called human engineering.
“Whether it is helping a patient into a wheel chair, or assisting in their daily grooming, we want to provide patient and staff with the optimal safety environment,” said Keith Safian, Phelps President and CEO. “Patient safety begins with employees having the proper education and equipment to prevent injury to themselves and the patient.
According to the Knibbe & Knibbe report, “In clinical (patient) areas, ergonomic injuries are largely the result of patient transfer and repositioning tasks where clinical caregivers help patients.”
In January, Phelps began its Lift Smart program by purchasing five pieces of equipment that significantly decrease the amount of manual lifting during the transfer and repositioning of patients, thereby improving quality of care for the patients and decreasing injury to clinical staff. The result is a better work environment in which Phelps staff can uphold its tradition of providing top quality healthcare. Throughout the month of December, clinical staffers participated in a number of training sessions.
A major component of the program has been the designation of “Coaches” on every unit. The coaches provide the reinforcement for the utilization of the equipment and serve as ongoing resources for the unit staff. The program has enabled staff to mobilize patients earlier and much more efficiently. Outcomes for patients are achieved within a shorter time frame. Patients appear better and begin to feel better sooner. The equipment is readily available on the patient care units for all staff to utilize when needed. The availability fosters a greater use of the equipment; thus enabling success with the Lift Smart program.
Phelps Memorial Hospital is a 235-bed community hospital with 450 medical staff, representing 34 different medical specialties. Phelps is the exclusive Westchester Satellite for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, a clinical affiliate of Mount Sinai-NYU Health, and the newest member of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthcare System.