Long-Term Effectivess of 'Zero-Lift Program' in Seven Nursing Homes and One211 Hospital

摘要

The primary objective of this study was to reduce injuries to health care workers211u001eresulting from manual and transferring of patients. The 'zero-lift programs', 211u001eusing employee management advisory teams (participatory-team approach), were 211u001eimplemented in seven nursing homes and one hospital. The eight facilities varied 211u001ein number of beds (mean + 145, range = 85-253) and number of nursing personnel 211u001e(mean = 94, range = 57-136). All eight facilities had a large number of acute 211u001ecare patients. The 'zero-lift programs' were implemented by replacing manual 211u001elifting and transferring of patients, with modern, battery operated hoists and 211u001eother patient transfer assistive devices. Ergonomics committees with nearly equal 211u001erepresentation from management and employees selected the equipment and 211u001eimplementation of the 'zero-lift programs'. Injury statistics were collected 211u001eduring post-intervention for 51 months (range = 36-60 months) and were compared 211u001ewith pre-intervention data for 37 months (range = 30-54 months).