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SPU Breathable Air Transfer Mattress reduces nurse injuries
Categoriesair transfer systems

Reduce Nurse Injuries from Repositioning with Air Transfer Systems

by sphmedicaladmin

Are you a healthcare facility or hospital caring for patients that are total care or dependent patients that require extensive boosting turning and transferring? Are nursing and hospital staff workers continuing to be injured from patient handling tasks with no end in sight? Now is the time to make a change to dramatically reduce nurse injuries risks using the SPH Medical Air Transfer and Positioning System. SPH Medical, a global leader in the area of Safe Patient Handling offers the current gold standard of Air Powered Transfer and Positioning Systems. This SPH Air Transfer Mat uses a cushion of air that flows through the Air Mattress and out through tiny holes on the underside of mattress to virtually eliminate friction on the surface below, resulting in an effortless ability to boost, turn, or transfer a patient.

The SPH Medical Air Transfer and Positioning device is the latest industry leading technology that reduces patient-caregiver risk of injury and improves efficiency. With multiple material types and sizes in a variety of widths and lengths, the SPH Medical Air Transfer Systems is used throughout Medical Centers to address a variety of patient handling tasks.

How it Works

The air-powered Lateral Transfer Device is the manufacturer’s design to address traditional challenges of patient handling posed by existing devices in the market. Its functionality is bent towards reducing injuries to patients and caregivers.

A powered air supply accompanies the SPH Medical Air Transfer Mat and Positioning Systems via a hose. The motor injects air into the mattress from the bottom, which holds the patient gently and delicately. The perforated Mat with tiny air holes that let out air effectively creates air cushioning. This cushion reduces the pressure needed to transfer patients.

With your force cut down by 90%, your typical strain reduces for the caregiver attending numerous patients. Unlike the familiar four caregivers or more needed for some procedures, your patient needs one or two nurses.

Transfer Mattress Materials and Specifications

Air Powered Lateral Transfer Device is made of a nylon twill material with a four-way flex fabric. This durable material comes with an antibacterial coating on the patient’s side.

The standard length of a Single Patient Use Air Transfer Mattress is 78″ with widths of 24″, 28″ 34″, 39″, and 50″. Other features include:

  • The SPH Air Transfer mat is compatible with most air supply or motors already in place
  • A safe working load of 450kg/1000lbs.
  • Enables compliance with Safe Patient Handling policies and programs.
  • Bariatric patients from 700-1000lbs can utilize two motors for maximum friction reduction and airflow.

Benefits of Friction Reducing Devices

  • They are easy to use.
  • Fewer Caregivers Required – You need two caregivers to complete the transfer rather than 3-4.
  • Easy to implement and train staff.
  • Reduction injuries to patients and caregivers, including reduction in severity.
  • Documented reduction in workers compensation costs.
  • It is an efficient tool in managing the caregiver’s time.
  • It is the most comfortable and safest transfer method for all patients.
  • Its material is machine washable and dry-able.
  • Economical and cost-effective
  • Significant improvement in staff efficiency and morale.
  • SPU Air Transfer and Positioning offers enhanced infection control.

A Consideration for success:

The SPH Medical Air Transfer System Air Supply and Mattress must be accessible and available. Ensure that the system components are stored locally on the unit so that staff have ready access to them. Include Housekeeping and Environmental Services in your Safe Patient Handling program to ensure that beds are made with the Single Patient Use transfer Mattress so it is available for immediate use. This removes a major step in the process so nurses don’t have to turn a patient to get the Air Transfer Mattress underneath the patient!

Who Should Buy a Single Patient Use Air Transfer Systems

Whether you are a Nurse Leader, Rehab Director, Surgeon, or Imaging Tech, you want to see Safe Patient Handling best practices being used throughout your facility especially on the total care patients that can’t move themselves. For this reason, we recommend that the following areas should consider having access to the SPH Medical Air Transfer and Positioning System.

  • Hospitals with Medical Units and Intensive Care Units
  • Any inpatient unit that has dependent bed-bound patients
  • Health care facilities with MRI, CT, and Radiology departments
  • Surgery Departments
  • Nursing facilities and palliative caregivers
  • Spinal Centers
  • Ambulance service providers

Varieties of Air Powered Lateral Transfer Devices

The SPH Medical Air Transfer Mat is available in two material types:

Single Patient Use Transfer Mats. This Single Patient Use version is designed to be used during a patients’ entire length of stay and is then disposed of. Assigning a Mat to a single patient ensures that there is no cross-contamination between patients. The Single Patient Use version is similar in design and performance to the launderable or reusable version except that it will not be laundered.

A few key benefits of the Single Patient Use Air Transfer Mat version are breathability and inventory management. The material and construction of the Air Transfer Mat allow moisture to be transmitted through the Mat so that the Mat can remain under patients for prolonged periods. Breathability is a key advantage for the SPH Medical Air Transfer Mat which makes this technology readily accessible to nurses when boosting, turning, or transferring is required. When ordering the Single Patient Use version the inventory and availability of the SPU Air Transfer Mat is easily managed. Weekly and Monthly ordering follows and therefore tracks actual usage which documents that risk avoidance has occurred.

Reusable Transfer Mats. The reusable Air Transfer Mats are washable and include a one-year warranty and will generally be used for many years. Hospitals must consider the cleaning and disinfection of the the SPH Medical Air Transfer Mat between patients to reduce the risk of infections. The laundry process should be evaluated to determine how many reusable Air Transfer Mat’s you will need to meet all the daily patient repositioning and transfer tasks that will take place. Laundry system turnaround plays a key factor in determining inventory needs.

Other Repositioning Alternatives

You will find other devices in the market such as:

  1. Repositioning Sheets
  2. Slide Sheets
  3. Tube Style Slide Sheets
  4. Draw Sheet
  5. RollerSlide
  6. EasyGlide Ovals

While these alternatives have their share of use in the Patient Handling procedures, SPH Medical’s Air-Assisted Transfer and Positioning System is highly preferred by caregivers. This preference is due to the myriad of ergonomic advantages listed earlier. SPH Medical offers this proven technology to boost, turn, or transfer patients safely and efficiently improving patient throughput in busy hospital departments like surgery and imaging.

How to buy the Air Transfer and Positioning System

At SPH Medical, we offer you the latest Air Transfer and Positioning System to maximize safety for both the patient and the caregiver. The Single Patient Use Air Transfer Mattress is your go to solution for rapid reduction in workplace injuries and offers you measurable benefits in patient comfort, staff and patient safety, time management, and ease of use.
For more information about the SPH Medical Air Transfer and Positioning System and to discuss the cost savings impact to your organization, please contact us.

AORN recommends using an Air Powered Lateral Transfer System for supine transfers in Perioperative care areas
CategoriesPatient Handling

Reduce Risk of Injury and Infections with Air Transfer Technology

by sphmedicaladmin

Implementing Air Transfer Technology Reduces the Risk of Infections and Staff Injury in Hospitals

Hospitals are typically viewed as place where state of the art healthcare services are provided.  However hospitals today are still not the safest places to work. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic nurses and healthcare workers have been exposed to workplace injuries from manually lifting, moving and transferring patients. Infection prevention was always a top concern as well for both staff and patients. Hospitals and their infection prevention team has had their hands full preventing cross contamination and transmission of deadly viruses within the hospital. Some of these pathogens include C. difficile, MRSA, VRE, H1N1 and many more. The risks abound for patients and staff. According to the CDC, “On any given day, about one in 31 hospital patients has at least one healthcare-associated infection.” One way to reduce both the risk of injury and Hospital Associated Infections is to streamline transfer and positioning processes with the Air Transfer Technology from SPH Medical.

The Air Transfer System is a multifaceted approach to solving the issues associated with lateral transfer. Lateral transfers are quite common in the hospital setting, and they are also one of the most dangerous patient-handling tasks. During a global pandemic, lateral transfers can be especially unnerving. When moving patients from one surface to another, there is a risk of contamination. As patients are moved around the hospital, they can leave a trail of germs that allows pathogens to spread. Healthcare associated infections are incredibly problematic. By the best estimates, one in every 31 patients will be infected each day.

The Air Transfer System can minimize the risk of HAI’s within a facility. These systems are designed for single-patient use. In other words, they are not shared from patient to patient. This is more important than ever. With increased concern over the spread of germs within hospitals, infection prevention protocols have become more stringent. Using single patient use devices is a further advancement in minimizing the risk of infection.

The injury risk to nursing staff associated with patient positioning and transfers may even be of greater concern. Compared to other work settings, hospitals are among the most dangerous places to work. The risk of injury is 5.9 per 100 workers. This compares to a risk of 2.6 per 100 workers in other industries. Much of this risk comes from pushing, pulling, boosting, holding, and transferring patients. Patients are moved all the time.

For example, an ICU nurse caring for four patients over a 12 hour shift performs an estimated 48 repositioning tasks that include boosting and turning every two hours! Now consider that patients are getting heavier and typically average 250-300lbs and the nurse is considerably smaller having to manually move these patients. Nurses are the coordinators of care often the ones responsible for repositioning, turning and transfers. It is not surprising, therefore, that 80 percent of nurses endure some injury on the job.

Manual Patient Handling

When a patient is moved in bed or is transferred from one surface to another, it is often a manual process. In other words, the patient must be lifted or pulled up in bed or slid over from a bed to a gurney. In some cases, a draw sheet may be used or some other type of friction reducing device may be used like the old fashioned plastic slider board that always hangs at the end of the hall. However, the draw sheets actually cause nurses to lift, and the plastic boards do not reduce friction sufficiently to reduce risk. The cumulative trauma from the predictable and repetitive patient positioning and transferring tasks have been documented as leading causes of injury to nurses.

This does not mean that injury is inevitable. Thanks to proven technology, it is possible to make transfers safer and reduce the risk of nursing injury and repositioning injury. Just consider the SPH Medical Air Transfer System. The single patient use Air Transfer Mats are part of this system from SPH Medical. The technology dramatically improves the efficiency of patient positioning and transferring while reducing risk of risk.

The New Standard of Care

The Air Transfer System utilizes the power of air to inflate the mattress and safely cradle the patient while releasing air through the bottom of the mattress to virtually eliminate friction. Nurses can easily reposition patients or float them from one surface to another. Air transfer technology is fast becoming the standard of care for surgery departments and the OR within Labor and Delivery Units. The Association of Peri-Operative Nurses, AORN, recently released their updated Safe Patient Handling tool kit and recommends its usage for all patients greater than 157 lbs that require lateral transfers.

Air Powered systems make repositioning a patient up in bed safer for nurses. Patients who are confined to bed, or bed bound, and unable to turn and move on their own must be turned and repositioned every two hours for wound prevention. In-bed repositioning poses risks similar to lateral transfers. In the past, two nurses would simply grab the bedsheet to boost the patient and lift or drag the patient up in bed. When repeated all throughout the day, the risk of injury is prevalent. The single patient use Air Transfer Mat stays underneath the patient to enable safe repositioning. With a simple flip of the switch the mat will inflate and nurses can boost a patient with ease, even heavy patients.

These are just a few examples of how Air Powered systems are so important to nursing safety. Patients who require total care put a real strain on a nurse’s physical health. While it is imperative to provide critical care for these patients, it is equally important to keep nurses safe in the process. Fortunately, the SPH Medical Air Transfer Technology can serve both purposes. Total care patients will be safer and more comfortable throughout their stay, and nurses and other hospital staff will be at a reduced risk of injury.

These risks are not overstated. In fact, if anything, there is not nearly enough attention given to the problems associated with a patient transfer process in the hospital. There are entire legislative solutions that have been passed to address the issue, and the CDC has taken a proactive approach to set infection prevention guidelines for both patient and staff safety.

The risks are real. Fortunately, it is possible to significantly impact the challenges of Healthcare Associated Infections and patient positioning with single patient use Air Transfer Mats from SPH Medical.

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