If the caregiver is required to lift more than 35# of patient weight, the patient should be considered fully dependent and assistive devices should be used for the transfer 1. Minimize all manual lifting and eliminate when feasible 2. Thirty-five years of research reveals body mechanics training alone fails to prevent job-related safe patient handling injuries 3. Do not use standing lifts if the patient is combative, unpredictable, or has cognitive defects 4. Research indicates one caregiver should not use a gait belt for vertical transfer of weight bearing patients 5. When transferring a patient to and from a car, use equipment designed for this type of transfer.27 Floor Lifts vs. ceiling lifts: There is a significant reduction in injury, pain, discomfort when ceiling lifts are used to transfer or reposition patients. In addition, there is an increase in staff compliance to use ceiling lifts more than floor lifts.25 Floor lifts are useful in specific patient handling tasks where ceiling lifts are impractical or unavailable. Push, pull, and rotation movements during safe patient handling is far less when using a ceiling lift than with a floor based lift.26 It takes 50-75% less force to operate an overhead lift compared to a floor-based lift.25
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 25, 27 Footnotes found in the Scoring & Algorithms for Safe Patient Handling & Mobility