Making the Business Case to Initiate, Evaluate, and Sustain Safe Patient Handling Programs: Part 2

This article, the second of a 2-part series, examines measures such as using ergonomics analysis tools to identify patient care tasks that require safe patient handling (SPH) interventions and injury incident rates to further prioritize and benchmark SPH initiatives. Tools used to evaluate operational gains that occur after a SPH program is implemented, such as staff and patient satisfaction surveys and other metrics that may positively influence delivery of patient care and clinical outcomes, are discussed. When used alongside the measures determined in the first article published in September 2011, this article provides a comprehensive package of tools by which to build a strong business case for the financial and human resources required to develop and sustain a safe patient handling program, as well as providing an evaluation strategy to measures its success.

Enos L

Keywords: business case, work-related musculoskeletal disorders, safe patient handling, evaluation