International Round Table Discussion: Safe Patient Handling & Mobility: What is Working, What Needs to Change, and Where Does the Future Lie?

Safe patient handling first became prominent in the early 1990s in Europe. Since then, it has continuously evolved to meet the ever-changing demands of the healthcare industry. From the initial motivator of cost savings by reducing the number and associated costs of  musculoskeletal injuries to nurses and CNAs to a stronger patient safety and quality focus, new technologies have been developed for almost every situation where a patient or resident needs to be repositioned, lifted, transferred, or mobilized. However, alongside these advances we have also seen companies merging and it leads one to consider the question of whether the SPHM industry is shrinking, consolidating, or still evolving to meet the needs of the clients vendors now serve. To discuss what is working in SPHM, what still needs to change, and where the future of the industry lies, three experts from different roles in the SPHM industry express their perspectives on these areas.

Enos L, Monaghan HM, Odum M

Keywords: safe patient handling, early mobility, change