Unions unite, seek laws for safe patient handling
By DEBORAH A. MILES
Health care leads all other industries in New York for back injuries.
That information, released at the 7th Annual Safe Patient Handling and Movement
Conference in Orlando, FL, was one of the reasons PEF health and safety
representatives went there in March.
With accelerated injury rates among nurses lifting patients, the goal was to
help participants develop safe patient-handling programs and propose legislation
to protect health care workers by requiring lift equipment and programs to
prevent back injuries.
The five-day conference organized by the University of South Florida attracted a
thousand participants from throughout the country.
Representatives from New York included a coalition of labor unions, the Western
NY Committee on Occupational Safety and Health (WYNCOSH), plus the NYS Labor
Department (DOL).
The unions represented at the conference were PEF, Civil Service Employees
Association (CSEA), New York State Nurses Association, Service Employees
International Union and American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees.
Injuries surface later
“Healthy nurses who lift patients every day as a part of their jobs often don’t
realize the repetitive strain will catch up to them,” said Kathy D’Arminio,
statewide health and safety chair.
“We need to build an awareness with our members, the public, risk managers,
union representatives and legislators that it is in the best interest of
everyone to adopt safe patient-handling procedures,” she said. “It would cut
down on the number of injuries, lower Workers’ Compensation costs and provide
safer care for patients.”
No-lift legislation
D’Arminio said former Gov. George Pataki signed a safe handling bill in April
2005, calling for the creation of a two-year study to establish safe patient
handling and collect data on the incidence of nursing, staff and patient injury
by comparing manual and lift equipment.
“That’s not enough. Our goal is to work together to achieve federal legislation,
as well as to introduce permanent legislation in New York state,” D’Arminio
said.
Other states, such as Texas and Washington, have passed “no-lift legislation,”
and bills have been introduced in California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island,
Florida, New Jersey and Ohio.
“It’s a national issue that needs addressing,” D’Arminio said.
Statewide issue
Geraldine Stella, PEF health and safety specialist, said working with the
coalition of unions and WYNCOSH, which along with CSEA initiated a safe patient
handling task force, will raise awareness.
“Our members need to know this is a serious problem,” Stella said. “They are
doing more lifting because more people have mobility problems. Many patients are
overweight, and that also leads to increased risk of injury when moving them.”
If you would like to learn more about safe patient-handling, DOL will hold a
conference, that is supported by PEF and other unions, Wednesday, May 23, at the
Crown Plaza in Albany. It will focus on how to establish and maintain a safe
patient-handling program by building a comprehensive injury-prevention program,
and how to obtain legislative action.
For more information on the conference, send an e-mail to
Kdarminio@pef.org by Monday, May 14.
The
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