Balancing Safe Patient Transfers with Tight Budgets
Many facilities are caught in a balancing act. That balancing act is between their desire to reduce the ongoing transfer injuries with the tight budget that limits capital for training and equipment. The solution to this balancing act is actually in the balancing. It turns out that the process of safe patient transfer is widely misunderstood within the healthcare industry.
OSHA has determined that the safe patient transfer load limit is 35lbs. That does not sound like any patient I manage. That limit sounds like it is only safe to transfer infants and midgets but you may be surprised to learn that you can safely and manually transfer even a large person with less force than that.
The transfer is known as the Balance Pivot and it is safe, effective and an entire program cost less than a simple small back strain. There are 15 Balance Pivot patient transfer techniques that cover every imaginable vertical transfer situation with or without the use of a simple lateral transfer device smaller than a laptop and certainly less expensive than a laptop. Balance Pivot has been taught to more than 10,000 nurses, PT, CNA’s and other caregivers over the last 6 years.