The new SPH Medical PositioningSling disposable is changing the way hospitals lift, move and transfer patients!

Nurses continue to be injured during boosting and turning patients in bed.  Nurses have been looking for a convenient tool that allows them to perform these tasks without having to apply and remove it every time they need it.  Other products on the market increase heat and moisture under patients and are often banned by wound care experts.  The new PositioningSling is the right solution to help with these tasks and it is safe for patients skin!

We had the PositioningSling tested by a 3rd party testing lab to look at breathability and heat.  The results were significant.  It was determined that the PositioningSling is comparable to normal hospital bed linen!  It’s also helpful that this new universal sheet supports up to 1000 lbs.

Every hospital is faced with patients that are bedridden and require frequent in bed positioning.  This is especially common in the Intensive Care Unit where the most complex patients are treated for a variety of different illnesses and injuries.  What does this mean for nursing staff?  It means more manual lifting, boosting, and turning is required to ensure that the patient doesn’t develop bed sores.  Additionally hospitals are also realizing that early patient mobility is helpful to improve cardiac and respiratory function.  Again, this means more manual work for nurses which puts them at risk of injury from overexertion and all the manual lifting, limb holding, pushing, pulling and applying pressure tasks they have to perform.  How do nurses avoid injury with all these manual patient care tasks that they face every hour of every 12 hour shift?

Safe Patient Handling programs have been implemented to reduce the risk of injury to nurses and nurse assistants while improving patient care.  Hospitals under new construction today are adding ceiling lifts and mobile lifts so that patients can be lifted and transferred safely.  The modern overhead lifts offered and installed by SPH Medical enable nurses to perform all of the above mentioned tasks now with the aid of mechanical assistance.

One of the most frequent tasks that nurses face everyday is in bed repositioning.  With patients continuing to get heavier and your average ICU patient weighing 285lbs you can see how dangerous it can be to try to lift, move, boost, or turn your average patient.  This is where the breathable repositioning sheet comes into play.  Because the SPH Medical repositioning sheet is breathable it can remain under patients during their entire length of stay to facilitate all day patient care.  The result is increased nursing satisfaction, reduction in injuries and lost work days.  This new repositioning sheet is a win win for everyone involved.  Fortunately SPH Medical keeps these sheets in stock and delivers them to hospitals daily to ensure nurses are free from injury.

Contact SPH Medical today to request a sample and reduce risk of pressure ulcers while reducing risk of injury to staff.

Request a Quote for your facility.

HaloMist disinfection system kills C. diff, MRSA

Consumers might choose one healthcare system over another because it offers great technology—or convenient, patient-friendly services like private rooms. We might pick hospitals that have stellar surgeons and exceptional outcomes.

In the near future, we could very well be basing our choices on which health systems have the lowest Hospital-Acquired Infection (HAI) rates.

The watchdog publication Consumer Reports, long known for evaluating cars, appliances and other products, now recognizes that healthcare is an important consumer choice.

For the first time ever, Consumer Reports rates more than 3,000 hospitals on how effectively they control HAIs.

“Hospitals need to stop infecting their patients,” says Doris Peter, Ph.D., director of the Consumer Reports Health Ratings Center. “Until they do, patients need to be on high alert whenever they enter a hospital, even as visitors.”

The report focuses on two of the most deadly pathogens: Clostridium difficile or C. diff and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus or MRSA. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, C. diffsickens 290,000 patients in healthcare settings each year, killing 27,000. MRSA infects 60,000 patients and is responsible for 8,000 deaths.

Consumer Reports notes that both these killers are largely preventable through a dual strategy:

• Health systems must adopt more judicious usage of broad-spectrum antibiotics that increase patients’ resistance to antibiotics used to treat C. diff and MRSA.
• Healthcare institutions must clean up their acts through fastidious disinfection.

The Halo Disinfection System™ by Halosil International is the first whole room fogging system approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. After using the system, a large urban teaching hospital reduced its C. diff infection rate by 66% for less than $15 per treated room.

HaloMist delivers hands-free disinfection with aerosolized hydrogen peroxide that produces at a 6-log kill rate that can dramatically reduce infections.

It saves patients’ lives by eradicating C. diff, MRSA and other pathogens. Lower HAI rates also can provide value by giving health systems an edge in an increasingly competitive marketplace.

Contact SPH Medical to learn more about how the Halo Disinfection system can help your facility reduce the risk of HAI’s.

[email protected]

Are you mobilizing more patients in the ICU today than you were a year ago?

We asked this question of 20+ hospitals over the past 30 days and the answer may (or may not) surprise you. 100% of the ICU’s that were surveyed said yes! Many of the hospitals said that the increase was due to an increased awareness of early patient mobility and the benefit to patients while others said that their hospital has a formal Early Mobility protocol that they follow to mobilize and ambulate patients early.

A wide range of studies over the past several years have sought to measure the effects of mobilization on multiple factors including patient safety, ambulation capacity, muscle strength, functional outcomes such as activities of daily living, duration of mechanical ventilation, ICU length of stay, hospital length of stay, and mortality.

We are seeing more and more hospitals evaluate and implement the RoWalker early patient mobility device to help achieve their mobility goals. Today, the RoWalker is the gold standard to help address all phases patient mobilization. In addition to the opportunity to improve patient outcomes and reduce lengths of stay in the ICU, the RoWalker helps prevent patient falls and reduce risk of caregiver injury. One Physical Therapist commented that the seat flaps on the RoWalker made this a must have device for their facility/

Contact SPH Medical today to learn more about how the RoWalker can enhance your Early Patient Mobility program.

By email:  [email protected]

Via Website: https://sphmedical.com/contact

SPH Medical is helping hospitals all across California comply with the new Safe Patient Handling regulations that take effect October 1st, 2014.  Under the new regulations, the appropriate assistive solutions must be accessible and available for staff to use them when necessary.   “By offering hospitals a low cost entry point to stock par levels of the essential slings, repositioning sheets, limb holding straps, and lateral transfer pads we are helping our customers develop a safer environment for their patients and staff and maintain compliance with the new law” said Tony Coleman, President of SPH Medical.   He also added, “Patient lifts and fabric slings are typically capital purchases, but these low cost single patient use items are easy to stock and can be purchased from an operational budget.  By eliminating laundry costs, laundry turnaround time, and slings that get lost in the laundry, we’re able so show increased compliance and greater risk/injury reduction”

For more information about SPH Medical’s broad portfolio of solutions, please visit: www.sphmedical.com

Contact SPH Medical to talk with an injury prevention consultant about your program today.

CAL OSHA has approved the regulations governing AB1136 – The new California Safe Patient Handling Law.   Here is a copy of the draft regulations.  Hospitals now face a deadline of October 1st, 2014 to be in full compliance with these regulations.  Some hospitals have commented that even though they thought they had a program, they are not even close to being fully prepared for compliance.    All patient care areas attached to a General Acute Care Hospital are covered by the new addition to California’s Labor Code: GENERAL INDUSTRY SAFETY ORDERS, Division 1, Chapter 4, Subchapter 7, Article 106, Section 5120.  This includes areas that have often gone unaddressed such as the Emergency Department, OR, Radiology/Imaging areas, and Outpatient Areas.

CAL OSHA Draft Regulations_April 16 2014

SPH Medical provides solutions to Healthcare to address Safe Patient Handling and Early Mobility to reduce injuries and improve patient care outcomes.  Visit www.sphmedical.com for more information.

Hospitals are scrambling to address the pending regulations that will govern the new Safe Patient Handling legislation in California, known as AB 1136. These new regulations are predicted to go into effect as of October 1st, 2014.  Here are just a few of the many key issues have been raised in the proposed modifications that may affect a hospital’s readiness for compliance:

• Each hospital unit should have it’s own plan to address manual patient handling tasks to prevent injuries to patients and staff.
• Hazard assessments need to be performed on each patient care unit.
• A validated patient assessment tool is needed!  A proposed modification to to state that the procedures followed by the designated registered nurse to assess patient mobility needs will be based on the nurse’s professional judgment and involve the use of the listed methods. The subsection has also been modified to clarify that other licensed staff can provide input regarding the patient mobility assessment and instructions.
• At least every 12 months, designated health care workers, designated registered nurses and their supervisors shall also receive refresher training.   Training conducted more than one year prior to the new regulations taking effect may not meet compliance.
• Is there enough equipment?  A modification is proposed to subsection (c)(5)(A) to state that equipment must be available and accessible at all times.

Visit www.sphmedical.com or contact us to learn more about how you can be prepared to be in compliance with AB1136/LC5120.

During a recent study of the Halo DS system at Pennsylvania Hospital , a 496-bed urban teaching hospital in Philadelphia, PA, infection control experts cut the rate of C. diff infections by 66% after deploying the Halo DS system in patient rooms, operating rooms and treatment areas.  SPH Medical provides this “no-touch” advanced room disinfection solution to help hospitals combat the ever increasing risk of Hospital Acquired Infections.  Visit SPH Medical to learn more.