Forever Young Magazine

January 2007
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Section: WNY Caregivers

Taking the Pain Out of Health Care
By Roger Cook

Bill Covington, SEIU 1199 (left), Senator George Maziarz (center) and John Dunn, Administrator at the Newfane Rehabilitation & Health Care Center (right) at a recent press conference announcing the facility’s participation in the WNYCOSH SPHM demonstration project. Senator Maziarz was instrumental in obtaining funding for the project.

Paula Pless, Ergonomic Evaluation Specialist and Director of Kaleida Health’s Safe Patient Handling and Movement (SPHM) program is a woman on a mission. Since assuming her position at Kaleida in 2004, the number of staff loss workdays (LWDs) has plummeted by a whopping 90%!

For health care workers who work directly with patients and residents, being absent from work is primarily a result of the back breaking work that they do — manually lifting patients, repositioning them while making a bed or changing a dressing, or transferring them from beds to chairs and chairs to beds. All of this lifting, bending and twisting takes its toll — 52% of U.S. health care workers, for example, complain of chronic back pain.

It’s this wear and tear that leads to loss workday rates over two and a half times that of construction workers. And high turnover rates, with 12% leaving the profession for good every year. The constant back pain is literally driving them out of the profession.

“This pain and suffering is unnecessary and is a direct result of believing in body mechanics to lift and move objects greater than what the human body was designed to do,” says Pless. “There’s a healthier way for health care workers to do their work. They need to stop the constant lifting and tugging and pulling. They need the tools, training and resources that come with comprehensive SPHM programs. That’s the healthier way,” she adds.

“Hospitals and nursing homes need to reduce manual lifting to near zero,” according to Pless. It can be done. Kaleida Health set up a Safe Patient Handling and Movement program. They bought new equipment and devices that eliminate most of the physical exertion necessary to move and shift patients such as mechanical lifting devices to easily make transfers from beds to chairs.

“It works,” says Dana McCarthy, a union safety and health specialist who represents Kaleida health care workers. “Workers are equal partners on our Safe Patient Handling Ergonomics Committee,” he adds. McCarthy and Pless agree that giving nurses and nurses aides an equal voice in implementing the program, has been key to its success.

Kaleida employees demonstrate a mechanical lifting device during
Zero-lift training at Degraff Skilled
Nursing Facility.

Patients like the lifting devices too. A long-term care Kaleida resident’s attitude is typical: “I feel human again,” she says. “I’m standing for the first time in years,” she exclaims, as she uses a modern sit-stand mechanical lift that allows her to stand and bear weight on her lower extremities.

Recently, Pless has been lending her expertise to the Western New York Council on Occupational Safety and Health (WNYCOSH), an organization dedicated to implementing Safe Patient Handling and Movement programs throughout the region. They have formed a consortium of health-care unions (CSEA, SEIU 1199, and CWA 1168) and health-care professionals. The group approached Senator George Maziarz with a funding proposal to implement “no-lift” demonstration projects in Western New York. The Senator came through with grant funding and WNYCOSH hired Melissa Rowland, R.N., to set up programs at the Grace Manor Nursing Home, Newfane Rehabilitation and Health Care Center, and the Wyoming County Skilled Nursing Facility.

Based on the Kaleida Health experience where injuries, lost workdays, and workers’ compensation claims have dropped dramatically since the program was implemented, expectations are high that these facilities will enjoy a similar success. “We’re very optimistic,” says Germain Harnden, the WNYCOSH administrator for the project. “These Safe Patient Handling programs are a win-win for all involved,” she adds. “The patient benefits by gaining comfort, safety and rehabilitation with the modern equipment; the employee benefits by avoiding heavy lifts and awkward positions that cause serious injuries; and the employer benefits by having a more productive work force and paying out far less in workers’ compensation claims,” she asserts.