Patient Lifting: Residential or Assisted Care Settings

 

Lifting up Residential Care: Patient Lifts in Assisted Care Settings

Gary Candela from First Res joins us today to demonstrate the application of the Patient Assist Lift (PAL) Strap, a simple harness designed to lift fallen patients. The PAL Strap has been adopted by many first responders who respond to patient lift calls, such as Fire Rescue, EMS, and non-medical first responders. The PAL strap is also a versatile tool that can help improve comfort and reduce strain on caregivers in residential care, assisted care, nursing homes, post-acute care, and other healthcare facilities.

How do you lift your patients?

Every day, nursing caregivers, assisted care facilities, and home patient-lift first responders tell us they’re still lifting patients with bedsheets. Lifting with bedsheets is unsanitary for caregivers, is a different assembly each time, and introduces risks of slipping, ripping, or disbalancing an elderly patient. Bedsheets have no instructions for proper assembly and, therefore, can’t be trusted to safely lift the patient or protect the caregiver from back injury. This level of liability is unthinkable in this day and age.

How should you lift your patients?

The PAL Strap is a simple, belt-like strap that goes under a patient’s legs and behind their back to form a sturdy, stable basket with a comfortable lifting strap on each side. Once assembled around the patient, caregivers can quickly and easily lock their front foot in front of the patient, creating a leverage point. Assisting the patient to their feet from here takes minimal effort. With this method, small caregivers can easily and safely lift much larger patients without fear of injury to themselves or the patient.

The PAL Strap can also lift a patient directly up from a seated position. This technique can move a patient to a stair chair, wheelchair, or bed.

The PAL strap is ideal for many scenarios where minimal intrusion is needed. Instead of calling the fire department to lift an elderly relative, simply keep a PAL strap in the house. Instead of getting five caregivers to heave an assisted care patient, keep a PAL strap within reach. Lifts will be quick and not intrude on the privacy or personal life of the patient to regain their comfort and maintain their dignity.

Best of all, the PAL strap disassembles in seconds. Removing the bedsheets from underneath a lifted patient is a chore. Caregivers shimmy the patient around, wrestling to scoot the sheets out from underneath slowly. With the PAL Strap, you simply pull the loop apart and slide the strap out from behind the patient’s back. We aren’t kidding when we say an experienced rescuer can disassemble the strap and remove it from a patient in under five seconds.

The PAL Strap comes in a kit of three straps and includes the Standard, Large, and X-Large sizes. Choosing which strap to use is based on the patient’s build, not their weight. A kit costs only $219 and if used correctly, removes your facilities liability for fallen patients. Purchase or learn more about the PAL strap here, or contact us today for bulk order discounts.