The goal of Safe Patient Handling is minimize manual lifting of patients in all cases and remove it when possible.
The policy requires employees to avoid manual handling in virtually all patient care situations. Safe patient manipulation programs reduce the risk of injury both healthcare workers and patients while improving the quality of patient care.
Four basic principles to follow when Safe handling patients manually include:
Maintain a wide and stable base with legs.
Place the bed at the correct height.
Try to keep the work straight ahead to avoid rotation of the spine.
Keep the patient as close to the body as possible. The use of lifting equipment is essential to a successful safe patient handling program and has been shown to reduce exposure to manual lifting injuries by up to 95%
