Public Employee Press

February conference in NYC demonstrated ways to
improve workers’ safety in handling hospital patients

Health care is among the most hazardous occupations in New York State, with more than three times the injuries suffered by construction laborers, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

But there is good news for hospital and nursing home workers, who often hurt their backs when they lift or move patients: Safe patient handling programs and new technology can dramatically reduce the injury rate.

Principal Program Coordinator Lillian Goodwine of DC 37’s Safety and Health Dept. and the Metro New York Safe Patient Handling Committee helped plan the cutting-edge conference on the issue held Feb. 24 in New York City for health-care professionals, administrators, staff, and union representatives who are interested in starting or revitalizing safe patient handling programs.

“The goal was to promote greater awareness about the advantages of safe patient-handling programs and provide useful information on how to implement them,” she said. The all-day session was New York City’s first in a nationwide series of meetings aimed at spreading the word about the programs.

Professionals presented information about using injury data to establish the need for a program and the mechanics of setting up a successful program, creating a committee and finding sources of funding.

The conference included hands-on demonstrations of safe patient-handling equipment and techniques. Resources offered included newsletters, posters, fact sheets and the “Back Injury Prevention Guide for Health Care Providers.”

The conference was held at Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ. Sponsors included the New York State Labor Dept., the New York Committee on Occupational Safety and Health and the New York Zero Lift Task Force, which Goodwine serves on. The program concluded with Kathleen Mowacki signing copies of her book, “Illustrated Guide to Safe Patient Handling.”

More information on the topic is available at www.zeroliftforny.org.