Zero lift means zero injuries for Ohio nursing home
Paradigm shift’ brought dramatic change
When Joe Jolliff, administrator of the Wyandot County Nursing Home in Upper Sandusky, OH, first brought in a sit-to-stand lift, nursing assistants didn’t even want to try it. They said they were too busy. The vendor left the lift at the nursing home for weeks, but the nursing assistants never touched it.
Today, nursing assistants tell Jolliff they can’t imagine going back to life without the equipment that eliminated the awkward twists, bending, and heavy lifts that led to aches, pains, and lost-time injuries.
That change in mindset came through Jolliff’s perseverance and determination to make his workplace safer. It’s a story he tells often at conferences around the country. And it’s a story that has many parallels for hospitals.
Jolliff began learning about the dangers of manual lifting and the benefits of mechanical lifts after a worker suffered from a back injury that led to $240,000 in workers compensation costs. He became convinced that the old way of doing things, with an emphasis on proper body mechanics, was exposing his workers to cumulative trauma.
At first, Jolliff thought an employee-led effort to select ergonomic equipment would lead to the necessary buy-in. "The reality is we still had a big battle, even though the employees made all the decisions and did all the research," he says.
He hesitated at first to ask for the money to buy a sufficient number of lifts. "The first thing every administrator says is, We can’t afford to do that.’ I totally understand it because I said the same thing,"
When a resident offered a $5,000 check to help the nursing home purchase lifts, Jolliff says, "it gave me the courage to go out and buy whatever equipment that committee chose to have." He also took advantage of a grant program offered by the Ohio Bureau of Worker’ Compensation. By January 1997, Jolliff had purchased the lifts chosen by his staff.
Yet his ergonomic problem was far from solved. Injury rates and turnover declined, but not as much as Jolliff had hoped. "We had very few employees who would use them," he says. "Nursing assistants fessed’ up later on [that] they would take the lifts into the room, close the door, and do a manual lift."
Finally, in April 2000, Jolliff worked with a manufacturer to obtain fast electric beds — beds that could be raised or lowered in 17 seconds. "The fastest bed made before that took twice that amount of time. Some took 10 times that amount of time," he says.
Suddenly, the nursing assistants saw the equipment as something that was truly changing the dynamic of their work and easing their discomfort. "When we first got fast electric beds, everybody said thank you and nobody complained, [and] I knew God had performed a miracle," he says. "That’s when we finally got buy-in from our staff. They began to recognize the difference in their bodies."
The nursing assistants began using the lifts. "There is not a nursing assistant in here who would ever go back to lifting by hand," he says. "The beds were the thing that brought the acceptance and caused the paradigm shift to say, Hey, there is a better way.’"
They also realized that using the lifts was actually faster than waiting for another employee to come into the room to help with a manual lift. They saw a positive effect on the residents.
Now, Wyandot County Nursing Home not only has a zero-lift policy; it has zero back injuries due to lifting. The equipment, purchased over time, cost a total of $280,000. The nursing home estimates savings of $55,000 a year in reduced overtime and absenteeism; $125,000 in reduced turnover costs, and more than $100,000 in reduced workers’ compensation costs.
This is Jolliff’s advice to hospitals and other nursing homes: "They have to find out every stressful situation the employee is in and solve that problem. That’s what I did here to get each piece of equipment I had. Each week or two, I would go out and talk to the nursing assistants. What else is strenuous? What else can we do better? It seems kind of scary from an administrator’s standpoint, but it is easier than you might think."
Cost is not the only benefit of the ergonomic program. "Now we have a full staff. We have people begging to come to work here," he says. "I really believe that the first hospital that puts in a complete no-lift program will have all the nurses they want."
When Joe Jolliff, administrator of the Wyandot County Nursing Home in Upper Sandusky, OH, first brought in a sit-to-stand lift, nursing assistants didnt even want to try it. Today, nursing assistants tell Jolliff they cant imagine going back to life without it.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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