Among the many challenges healthcare providers face in optimizing patient care is adopting safe and effective methods of transporting hospital patients from one location to another. Within Ascension Health, several caregivers not only are confronting the issue of safe patient handling and mobility, but are also getting smart about it.
From February 12 to March 27, more than 6,600 caregivers at six hospitals within St. John Providence Health System in the Detroit area are being trained in effective safe patient handling and mobilization practices through SmartMOVES, a program that implements evidence-based interventions through policies, procedures, best practices and competency assessments.
The Health Ministry has begun implementation of SmartMOVES as a kick-off to its Leading Edge Advanced Practice Topics (LEAPT) Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) initiative. This training was undertaken by Ascension Health and was funded in part by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services through the Partnership for Patients initiative.
The St. John Providence hospitals participating in these sessions include St. John Medical Center and Hospital; St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital: Macomb Center; St. John Macomb-Oakland Hospital: Oakland; Providence Hospital; Providence Park Hospital; and St. John River District Hospital, as these hospitals all are LEAPT pilot sites. As part of the LEAPT initiative, hospitals across Ascension Health are serving as pilot sites for effective, innovative clinical, safety and cost management practices that will lead to major changes across the System and, ultimately, to hospitals across the country.
Ensuring that nurses and other associates learn effective safe patient handling and mobility techniques is crucial for the health of nurses and other healthcare associates. Musculoskeletal injuries from overexertion are all too frequent in U.S. healthcare. In 2011, the rate of overexertion injuries for full-time hospital workers in the U.S. was 76 per 10,000, which is twice the national average rate of 38 per 10,000 full-time workers across industries, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
This effort to implement ergonomic safe patient handling and mobilization methods is led by Bob Williamson, RN, BSN, CSPHP, CWCP, Director of Associate Safety Risk Management. “We are very pleased with the attendance as well as the enthusiasm of the associates,” Williamson said. “Our priority is to not only get them engaged in the comprehensive SmartMOVES training but to ensure that each hospital adopts these best practices for the safety and care of patients both now and in the future.”
Columbia St. Mary’s Health System, Milwaukee—also a LEAPT pilot site for Safe Patient Handling and Mobility—will be next up with the SmartMOVES training beginning in March.
The training upon which this article is based was performed under Contract Number HHSM-500-2012-00010C CLIN 0002, “Hospital Engagement Contractor for Partnership for Patients Initiative.”
