International Round Table Discussion: Home Health

For many healthcare professionals, implementing safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) in a home and community setting remains the final SPHM frontier. While some countries, such as Scandinavia and Holland, have already made a great deal of progress in this area, others such as the United States are struggling to make even the smallest dent in progressing SPHM into any area other than acute and long-term care. This round table discussion provides perspectives from experts from the United Kingdom, Canada, Taiwan, Sweden, and the United States on why implementing SPHM in a home healthcare setting is such a challenge and what can be done to make it more inclusive to the continuum of safe patient care. During the discussion, funding, technology and availability, training, and culture were identified as the biggest challenges. While these may sound very familiar to those who lead SPHM in an acute care environment, addressing these areas in a home and community care setting often requires a very different approach and at times a different knowledge and skill set.

Chang J, Hilton T, Kajaks T, Love J, Parmelund P

Keywords: home health, home care, community, safe patient handling and mobility