Slide Tubes and Gait Belts Recommended By OSHA in Nursing Home Guidelines
On March 13, 2003, OSHA issued an ergonomics guideline to the nursing home industry in order to develop injury prevention programs for Caregivers, while promoting safety in the manual handling of patients. By providing a safer and more comfortable work environment, facilities have seen such benefits as lower staff turnover, increased productivity, improved employee morale, reduced absenteeism, and increased resident comfort. The guidelines provide recommendations for employers to help them reduce the number and severity of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in their facilities using methods that have found to be successful in the nursing home environment. Included in these recommendations are the use of 2 helpful products, "slippery sheets" and "gait belts". Click here to see OSHA recommended products.
Upon this release, ErgoSafe began researching avenues to meet these needs of health care facilities and to provide products that promote safety to caregivers while performing their daily routine of patient handling. The results:
ErgoSafe Products proudly introduced the ErgoSlide® and ErgoSheets™ to assist Caregivers when repositioning a resident in bed or transferring a patient from bed to gurney. The extraordinary sliding principles offer by the ErgoSlide® allows lift-free movement for manual patient handling. In addition, ErgoSafe offers their ErgoSheets™ (bed slide sheets) as an additional option for use with patients.
ErgoSafe understands the importance of building the confidence within patients. Our line of Gait Belts offers caregivers the opportunity to assist those residents who are partially dependent, have some weight-bearing capacity, and are cooperative. The ErgoBelt™ and ErgoBelt Plus™ aids caregivers when transferring patients from bed to chair, chair to chair, or chair to car. They can also be used to reposition a chairs, to support during ambulation, and assist in guiding during walking or falling.
ErgoBelt as seen in OSHA Guidelines
