WHAT IS A PATIENT TRANSFER LIFT? WHERE AND HOW TO USE IT?
Patient transfer lift is a product that facilitates the lives of people, health personnel, patient relatives and home care service providers who have long or short-term mobility restrictions and have to move with support, whether they have bedsores / not, whether they use air mattresses / not.
This product, also known as mobile patient transport lift, is not sufficiently known and used in our country.
Even the most basic needs become a problem as a result of loss of mobility during short or long-term hospitalisation at home, hospital or patient care centres.
Transferring the patient from the stretcher to the patient cot, from the patient cot to the stretcher, going to and from the toilet, sitting on the seat are the first ones that come to mind.
Patient transfers, which are frequently experienced in hospitals or patient care centres, cause dramatic images for healthcare personnel.
Especially in intensive care wards, floors, patient care centres, etc., health personnel have to carry out these transfers by helping each other as a result of necessity. Especially if the patient has a weight problem, grave images emerge.
The sheet under the patient is held from all four sides and the patient is tried to be transferred in a thousand and one difficulties, both the patient is tormented and the healthcare personnel have to work in unsuitable conditions.
In this dramatic picture, although the healthcare personnel try to help the patient with devotion, the buttocks and back of the patient are usually not fully lifted. The transfer is carried out by rubbing the patient's buttocks and back against the lying surface of the bed and the hard armrests made of iron material.
While these frictions are at a level that can cause bedsores even in a healthy person, they also cause more risky consequences for patients who already have bedsores.
On the other hand, in addition to the loss of labour force of the personnel whose duty is to take care of the patient's health, their own health is also endangered. Many health personnel experience various health problems due to these transfer/transport problems.
If the patient is hospitalised at home, patient transfers are a much bigger problem.
The ability of the patient's relative or carer to carry the patient to the toilet alone or to transfer the patient from the bed to the seat etc. in the house causes great difficulties.
Just like the health personnel, the patient's relatives or carers may face many muscle and joint problems, especially herniated discs, neck herniated discs, over time.
The need for a second person to assist in patient transfer causes a delay in the service that the patient should receive, and may cause many negative factors from hygiene to pressure for the patient.
While this is the case in our country, in Europe, especially in all health institutions, all patient transfers are carried out with patient transport lifts.
What is a patient transport lift?
As the name suggests, it is a kind of lifting and transporting lift that transports individuals with mobility limitations.
What is a patient transport lift?
This question, which may seem absurd to readers, actually constitutes the basis of the problem. In our country, many patients and patient relatives and even a considerable number of health personnel are not even aware of the existence of a product called patient transport lift.
The patient transport lift consists of a motor controlled by a remote control, an arm that moves by means of this motor and a carrying cloth that hangs on the end of this arm and grasps the patient. The patient is lifted from the lying surface by the lift. The patient is lifted upwards on the patient carrier and is no longer in contact with the lying or sitting surface. Finally, it is moved by means of the wheels of the lift, allowing the patient to be transported / transferred.
Can every patient be transported with every transport lift?
Not every patient can be transported with every transport lift. Patient transport lifts use motors with different carrying capacities. Generally, engines with 6,000 newton, 8,000 newton and 10,000 newton power are used. The carrying capacity of each engine power is different from each other. Therefore, patient transport lifts that can lift the patient's weight should be preferred.