Danish manufacturer, V Guldmann, says ceiling-mounted patient hoists can ‘improve working environments for nurses and care staff, and, if considered correctly, provide longterm cost savings and free up resources to provide such personnel with more time to care’.
Chris McConnell, the company’s area sales manager, UK, examines some of the key benefits of such equipment to both patients and staff, considers the technical elements of the many different solutions available, and discusses some of the installation issues.
Security, safety, and comfort – the three key words that have to be considered when handling a patient using ceiling hoists. Patient hoists have, for years, provided a mechanism for assisting with patient transfer, most commonly in the form of a mobile lift or a sit-to-stand lift, transportable from room to room. A ceiling-mounted lift, installed to the building structure, is becoming more common in new healthcare facilities in the UK, and such equipment is also increasingly being installed retrospectively into existing healthcare buildings worldwide.
The drive for ceiling hoists’ adoption came initially from the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974, which saw employers obliged to take responsibility for providing safe working environments for their staff. Over the years, hoist technology developed, as it became clear that certain solutions, in tandem with appropriate and effective training regimes and education programmes, could indeed create safer working environments for staff, reduce injuries, cut lost time through injury, and reduce potential compensation claims, as well as providing safer, more dignified, patient care. So far so good.
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