THE WORK WE DO

Safe Patient Handling

Healthcare workers experience the highest rate of non-fatal occupational injuries and illnesses of any industry sector. To help address the issue, New York State's Safe Patient Handling Act (SPHA) was enacted. The law recognizes that lifting patients often can cause injury to both patients and health care workers and that safe patient handling techniques can reduce the risk of injury.

The EH&S Healthcare Safety group implements a Safe Patient Handling Program for the planned lifting, transferring, and repositioning of patients to promote safe care and a safe work environment for all employees. This includes reviewing all workplace injuries at various committee meetings. The information is used by the committees to identify trends and hotspots, so that the committees can do deeper dives and address specific weaknesses. 

As you can see in the graph, there is a downward trend in staff injuries related to patient handling over the last five years, and a significant reduction in days away from work! 

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The Healthcare group also supports the annual Safe Patient Handling fair. This annual fair invites clinical staff to meet with peers and manufacturer representatives to practice using patient handling equipment and to review and discuss information on recent injury trends and available resources. 

The Healthcare Safety group works hard and enthusiastically to motivate hospital staff to use patient handling equipment and techniques to prevent injuries to themselves and others and to promote a safe work environment.