Title: Post Falls Transferring Patients Up From The Floor

Role: Safe Patient Handling Injury Prevention

Location: Monaco Hospital, Department: Patient Care WORK HVC, Ambulatory Surgery Areas Document Owner: Safe Patient Handling Committee (co- STANDARD chairs: Agatha Faltskog, Ben Anderson)

Date Prepared: Date Revised: Date Approved: 12/08 4/09 1/09

Process Summary: To prevent patient handling injuries by providing a safe process for transferring patients up from the floor.

Essential Tasks:

1. Manual lifting of a dependent patient from the floor is considered a High Risk Task for injury and is not to be completed without the appropriate safe patient handling equipment. Examples of tasks not to be completed without appropriate safe patient handling equipment include: . Cradle lift (lifting patient under knees and behind back regardless of how many staff are available to assist)

2. A patient should be considered dependent if the patient meets any of the following criteria: . uncooperative . unable to assist with 75% of the effort required to stand . if any staff member may be required to lift more than 35 pounds of the patient’s weight

3. The house orderlies are to be paged for assistance with utilizing the Hoyer lift to lift a dependent patient up from the floor

4. A Spine Board can be used in an Emergency with a minimum of 4 people, or if determined to be a medical contraindication by medical staff

5. If this procedure is not able to be followed, the area’s manager/associate is to be notified and the method of how the patient was lifted from the floor is to be documented in the progress note, for review by Patient Safety and communicated to the PNHS Safe Patient Handling Committee.

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