Safe Patient Handling Act a huge lift for safety ALBANY — CSEA was key in helping secure safe patient handling legislation that will protect patients and workers from injuries related to lifting and moving, and has the potential to save millions of dollars in Workers’ Compensation costs. The legislation was enacted as one of the highlights of the state budget. CSEA has long advocated safe patient handling as a sensible and humane way to protect patients and workers while saving money. Safe patient handling uses engineering controls, lifting and transfer aids, or assistive devices by staff to perform the acts of lifting, transferring and repositioning health care patients and residents. It has worked everywhere it has been implemented. “This is a prime example of intelligent legislation that will move us into the 21st century while saving millions of dollars and ending unnecessary pain,” said CSEA President Danny Donohue. CSEA has been part of a coalition for several years that has fought for safe patient handling legislation, and CSEA members at the Batavia Veterans Home have benefited from a pilot project that implemented special lifting devices that have greatly reduced worker and patient injuries while saving the nursing home Worker’s Compensation injury claim and insurance costs. The new Safe Patient Handling Act covers all hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic treatment centers and clinics licensed under Article 28 of the Public Health Law, and includes state operated group homes as well as health care units in prisons and OCFS facilities. The law requires the state Commissioner of Health to establish a statewide workgroup by Jan. 1, 2015, and report its findings by July 1, 2015. Workgroup membership will consist of the Commissioner of Health, the Commissioner of Labor, health care providers, employee representatives of nurses, employee representatives of direct care workers, representatives of nurse executives and certified ergonomic evaluation specialists. By Jan. 1, 2016, all covered facilities must establish a facility-based safe patient handling committee. One half of each committee’s membership must be front-line, non-managerial employees that provide direct care with at least one nurse and at least one non-nurse direct care provider. Where applicable, a resident council member must also be included. Policies Batavia Veterans Home staff use a ceilingmounted patient lift to move a patient in this file photo. The newly enacted Safe Patient Handling Act will require nursing, health care and other facilities, many of which employ CSEA members, to evaluate and develop safe patient handling policies. must be established by Jan. 1, 2017. Important components of the policies require facilities to conduct patient handling hazard assessments, provide training and evaluation, and create an investigative process for incident reviews. Coal mining or patient care? Moving patients is back-breaking work without assistive lifting devices: • Nurses and other care specialists spend 20 percent to 30 percent of their time bent forward or with their abdomens twisted during patient care; • Even with so-called good techniques, it is not possible to lift patients manually without exceeding the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health’s Action Limit of 35 pounds; • Nursing is the only profession that considers 100 pounds “lightweight”; • Nurses lift an average of 1.8 tons per eight-hour shift; • Nearly 40 million Americans can be classified as obese (National Institute of Health) • One barrier employers face in retaining nurses is the heavy physical demands associated with patient care; • The average age of nurses is increasing, and is now greater than 50 years old; • Cumulative trauma from manual lifting, transferring and repositioning of patients can lead to career ending musculoskeletal injuries; • There is a direct relationship between patient safety and staff safety. Patient benefits Traditional means of moving patients can leave them injured, especially the elderly. Fourteen months after Kaleida Health in Buffalo eliminated pivot transfers, the health care provider experienced: • 64 percent decline in patient fractures; • 37 percent decline in skin tears and bruises; • total elimination of lower extremity spiral fractures; and • a 26 percent improvement of upper extremity range of motion. June 2014 The Work Force 3
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