Establishing a Safe Patient Handling/Minimal Lift Program.
To improve the safety of healthcare workers, a movement is gaining support in this country to limit the manual performance of high-risk patient care tasks. Many states have passed legislation-mandating policies aimed at protecting employees from injuries related to patient handling. Federal legislation has been proposed 3 times, each time moving farther along the process toward passage into law. This article describes the steps taken in the planning and implementation of a Safe Patient Handling/Minimal Lift Program in a 380-bed, licensed, not-for-profit, east coast acute care hospital.
Hinton
Mary V
MV
In-Patient Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Department, Franklin Square Hospital Center, 9000 Franklin Square Drive, Baltimore, MD, USA.
D004496:Education, Continuing; D017408:Guidelines as Topic; D006801:Humans; D017770:Lifting; D016272:Occupational Health; D010360:Patient Transfer; D016730:Program Development