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The Safe Patient Handling Steering Committee makes no representations or warranties as to the quality, content, nature, or reliability of the information contained in this website, including but not limited to its currency, accuracy, or completeness. You expressly agree that use of this site, including all content or date distributed by, downloaded, or accessed from or through this site, is at your own risk.
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Assess Risks and Needs of Each Unit
Measures to eliminate or reduce patient handling risks need to be identified.
• Conduct an analysis of injuries
• Identify and prioritize patient handling risks
• Assess patient mobility needs and capabilities by unit
• Conduct an inventory of patient handling equipment
• Identify environmental and organizational barriers and solutions
Resources and Tools:
Empire Health Services developed a simple and easy to use tool to Identify High-Risk Patient Handling Tasks
Washington State Hospital Association's Patient Movement Classification System Categorizes patients by movement needs and can be used to communicate the patient’s current movement capacity. For a summary of this color-coded Patient Movement Classification System refer to the Quick Reference Guide.
The Occupational Health and Safety Agency for Healthcare in British Columbia guide: Reference Guidelines for Patient Handling includes a very useful resource on risk assessment and needs. Section 3 of the document includes:
Hazard control – the hierarchy of controls
• Elimination
• Engineering controls
• Administrative controls
• Personal controls
A five-step patient handling process
Step 1 - Identifying and assessing potential risk factors
Step 2 - Deciding on the appropriate patient handling technique
Step 3 - Preparing for the patient handling task
Step 4 - Performing the patient handling task
Step 5 - Evaluating the completed patient handling task
The AOHP OSHA Alliance Implementation Team's Resource Guide for Implementing a Safe Patient Handling Program in the Acute Care Setting includes a helpful "getting started" section that addresses conducting a needs assessment, a worksite analysis, and developing a plan for looking at equipment, implementation, and evaluation outcomes.
The Safe Patient Handling Risk Assessment Tool, developed by Swedish Medical Center, Seattle, Washington. A tool to assess patient handling risks and equipment needs. A list of references used in the tool development is provided (Tool References)
Go to Step 5: Plan the Purchase of Equipment
For questions or comments about this site please contact
Washington's Safe Patient Handling Steering Committee at
sph@washingtonsafepatienthandling.com
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