Dive Brief:
- The nationwide healthcare system of the Department of Veterans Affairs has installed patient lifts and other devices at a cost of more than $200 million for its "safe patient handling program," which aims to protect nursing staff.
- Results indicate that VA hospitals have reduced nurses' lifting injuries by an average of 40% since beginning the program.
- The program's success relies not only on the technology, but on policy and training. "Nobody at this VA is allowed to move patients the traditional way anymore," NPR quotes Tony Hilton, the safe patient handling and mobility coordinator at Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Medical Center in California. "The guideline is, you're not manually moving or handling patients. You're using technology."
Dive Insight:
The VA hospital system is stepping up as a leader in the protection of nurses. While there are other hospitals that use patient lifts, NPR reports that researchers have "seldom seen a hospital embrace lifts as dramatically as Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Medical Center and other VA medical centers have."
The hospital credits part of their successful adoption of the technology to constant training from "peer" trainers on duty at all times, and a safety "champion" who acts as a full-time coordinator to promote and enable the new lifting practices.