Musculoskeletal injuries among hospital patient care staff before and after implementation of patient lift and transfer equipment

Details

• Personal Author:
  Dement, John M. ; Lipscomb HJ ; Myers DJ ; Pompeii LA ; Schoenfisch AL
• Description:
  Objective: Using an observational research design and robust surveillance data, we evaluated rates of musculoskeletal (MS) injuries, days away from work, and restricted work days among patient care staff at a medical center and community hospital in the United States over 13 years, during which time a "minimal manual lift" policy and mechanical lift equipment were implemented. Methods: Workers' compensation claims data were linked to human resources data to define outcomes of interest and person-time at risk to calculate rates. Poisson and negative binomial regression with lagging were used to compare outcome rates in different windows of time surrounding the intervention. Patterns of MS injuries associated with patient-handling were contrasted to patterns of other MS injuries that would not be affected by the use of mechanical lift equipment. Results: At the medical center, no change in the patient-handling MS injury rate followed the intervention. A 44% decrease was observed at the community hospital. At both hospitals, the rate of days away declined immediately - before it was reasonable for the intervention to have been adopted. Conclusions Institutional-level changes at the time of the intervention likely influenced observed results with findings only partially consistent with an intervention effect. Observational studies can be useful in assessing effectiveness of safety interventions in complex work environments. Such studies should consider the process of intervention implementation, the time needed for intervention adoption, and the dynamic nature of work environments. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Hospitals Musculoskeletal Diseases Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Healthcare Worker Disabled-workers Health-care-personnel Hoisting-equipment Hospital-equipment Injuries Injury-prevention Intervention Evaluation Lost-work-days Manual-lifting Mechanical-properties Medical-equipment Medical-personnel Musculoskeletal-system-disorders Observational Study Patient-handling Injury Surveillance-programs Workers' Compensation

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• ISSN:
  0355-3140
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  North Carolina ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 6 ; Texas
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  27-36
• Volume:
  39
• Issue:
  1
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20040827
• Citation:
  Scand J Work Environ Health 2013 Jan; 39(1):27-36
• Contact Point Address:
  Ashley L Schoenfisch, Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 2200 West Main Street, Suite 400, Durham, NC 27705, USA
• Email:
  ashley.schoenfisch@duke.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2013
• Performing Organization:
  University of Texas
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20051002
• Source Full Name:
  Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health
• End Date:
  20071231
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:ed69f64e74fd4acaf81d36df7e4375013fadb87111afb05431b24a3e5c9dd36633e45f0b4d8d453e5f72b4ed1874ecefef5a826e21230d1558ee0bc48d598bb1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/193552/cdc_193552_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 371.75 KB ]