Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive Safe Patient Handling Program at Mayo Clinic Florida

Purpose:
Purpose:
Aim: Implement a comprehensive Safe Patient Handling program at Mayo Clinic Florida which would decrease OSHA reportables/DART rate by 20% in the first full year of program implementation.

Significance:
Background: MCF patient and employee injuries are a large health, staffing, and financial burden. As evidence supporting SPH grows, unions and states legislatures are moving to pass laws that protect healthcare workers and patients.

Strategy and Implementation:
Equipment and slings were evaluated, purchased, and installed. Communication processes were developed to report data from SPH Committee to Safety committee and key stakeholders. Education was provided to 780 staff who lifted patients during their patient care duties. Research on SPH was presented and equipment training was provided. Data Collection was collected through employee injury reports, analyzed through the SPH Committee, and K. Coley compiles and benchmarks against the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Multiple processes were developed for needs assessments, equipment purchase, laundry, injury analysis, manager follow up for compliance issues, and dealing with patient refusals.

Evaluation:
Results: DART rate (Days Away and Restricted Time) which is a reflection of injury severity, decreased by 33% during program implementation. OSHA reportable injuries decreased 40%. Injury incidence decreased by 40.8%.

Implications for Practice:
Next Steps: 1) Continued injury analysis will point to further needs for SPH interventions 2) Push/pull injuries need to be addressed with wheelchair/stretcher devices 3) Procedural areas need increased Hovermatt availability 4) Staff communication tool development