Safe lift programs in long-term care facilities lead to fewer worker injuries and lower workers’ compensation costs, according to researchers from the University of Maryland School of Medicine and the National Council on Compensation Insurance.
But a study conducted by the two organizations finds that just having powered lifts won’t decrease workers’ compensation costs – the facility must be committed to implementing their safe lift programs.
Researchers found that nearly 95 percent of long-term care facilities have powered mechanical lifts and about 80 percent use them regularly. Types of lifts include free standing, overhead and sit-stand.
The study reports that the rate of injuries at long-term care facilities – 8.4 injuries per 100 full-time employees – is more than twice that for all private industries, according the U.S. Department of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics. Research done by NCCI found that back injuries, which frequently happen while lifting and moving residents, often contribute to workers’ compensation costs.
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The study’s data relied on the results of a University of Maryland director of nurses survey from 265 long-term care facilities, matched with NCCI policy and claims data. The matches resulted in data used from 119 facilities, totaling 317 observations from 2005 through 2007. Only facilities where safe lift programs have been in effect for more than three years were studied.
Researchers found that higher values on the safe lift index (created from the director of nurses survey) related to lower values in frequency and total costs of claims related to lifting-related injuries.
The study found that the strongest effect on safe lift programs and lowered workers’ compensation costs is culture. Analysts said the number of lifts an institution has is practically meaningless if they aren’t being used or aren’t being used properly.
“It wasn’t the number of pieces of equipment that they had nearly as much as it was how well they used them and how committed they were to using them,” said Harry Shuford, NCCI's chief economist and one of the study’s analysts.
“You can have them on an inventory but if they’re in the back of a closet behind floor buffers nobody’s going to go get them and use them,” said Melissa McDiarmid, MD, MPH, director of the occupational/environmental health program at the University of Maryland School of Medicine and one of the researchers of the study.
“Management commitment to doing things safely both for patients and for workers goes a long way to having that trickle down to a performance change and a culture change in an organization,” McDiarmid said. “If the DON (director of nursing) secretly thinks that this is all a lot of bunk and it takes too long nothing good’s going to come from buying a couple of extra pieces of equipment. So it’s a real attitudinal thing from the leadership on down.”
According to researchers, to foster effective safe lift programs, managers should have policies in place and offer training and education.
The culture at long-term care facilities has often focused more on being there for the residents than on taking care of the caregivers, said Patricia Gucer, PhD, a University of Maryland School of Medicine researcher. She and McDiarmid are publishing a companion study that will focus on the relationship between better outcomes for residents when their caregivers are healthier.
That report, they said, will demonstrate that safe lifting programs supported by management not only reduce workers’ compensation costs, but may reduce worker turnover, another problem that plagues long-term care facilities.
McDiarmid said that if workers see managers committed to safe lift programs resulting in safer situations for residents and fewer injuries for themselves, worker morale improves, translating into a more stable workforce as more workers will stay in their jobs.