Today we’d like to discuss patient lifts.
When you have a loved one with physical impairment or disability, care decisions become difficult. You may choose to care for your loved one at home, have help brought into the home, or place the person in a long-term care facility. Sometimes, your friend or relative ends up in the hospital for some time. In any case, the highest concern is their safety. That concern extends to the safety of caregivers as the patient’s care depends on caregiver well-being, whether it’s you or professionally trained help.
Patient transfer is an important part of daily care in the lives of many people. Caregivers often have difficulty with lifting a patient for daily life activities, including bathing, dressing, and toileting, and for patient transport. Patient lifts can positively alter peoples’ lives by helping provide them with freedom of mobility, allowing them to be more independent, and making lifting easier and less dangerous for both caregivers and patients.
Let’s examine the technology more closely.
What are Patient Lifts?
Safe patient lifting and positioning can be accomplished with the help of mechanical lifts. Variations of patient lifts include devices that assist patients with transitioning from a seated to standing position, ‘slings’ that wrap around a patient’s body with the help of one or more caregivers to pick them up and hold them upright, and the newest breakthrough — a lift that can pick up an individual in a flat position lying down and put them in a seated position in a wheelchair.
Types of Lifts
Disabled and physically impaired patients most often require lifting or lifting assistance from a bed to a chair, a floor to a bed, or a chair to a standing position. Some lifts have electrical power while others are manually operated.
- Ceiling lifts
- Floor lifts
- Sit to stand lifts – power
- Sit to stand lifts – non-power
Hospitals and skilled nursing homes often use ceiling lifts that are installed overhead on a track. Although the track is often ceiling or wall-mounted, portable ceiling lifts are also available. The cost and installation of these lifts may be prohibitive for some individuals, but they offer a wide range of movement options.
Floor lifts use a hoist to raise the patient from the floor. They work similarly to ceiling lifts, although they have a lower center of gravity. These lifts are mobile when moving people from room to room or from home to travel. They are also typically more cost-effective than ceiling lifts.
When a patient possesses enough strength to help assist with their own standing from a seated position but is limited in endurance, a sit to stand transfer lift can be used. If a patient is standing on the lift platform, a seat allows them to sit and hold on while the caregiver navigates the area, helping the tired patient.
Patient Lifts — Benefits for Caregivers
Anyone that has lifted a patient or loved one knows that it can take a toll on your body. Caregivers for disabled and physically impaired patients know this better than anyone. Home caregivers may be repeatedly lifting their loved one throughout the day, while hospital and long-term care workers may lift numerous people during a shift. Mechanical lifts save caregivers from back problems and other injuries.
Patient lifts also save time for the caregivers, allowing them to focus on helping other patients, or completing other tasks. Lifts can do the job of two caregivers who would need to work together otherwise. Productivity is important in a medical caregiving facility. Your quality of life, as a home caregiver, is important to you.
Patient transfer lifts work with the caregivers’ skills to help the patients help themselves. Patients who can be out of bed longer and take care of some of their own daily life activities feel better about themselves. The independent time and increased self-confidence of the patients makes caregiving jobs easier and aids workers in providing better care.
Considering Patient Lift Transfer Technology Options
If you’ve decided to get a patient lift transfer device, it’s important to do your due diligence and determine which type of lift will best accommodate your needs. Always work with a reputable dealer who will help you with the process, make valuable recommendations, and provide installation, support and a warranty. When you purchase the right patient lift transfer equipment, you’re making a worthwhile investment in your patients’ and caregivers’ well-being and, if you run a caregiving facility, the operation of your facility.
UpLyft®
UpLyft is the first free-standing floor lift to bypass slings and other inferior lifting mechanisms to provide smooth and discomfort-free transfer between bed and wheelchair for consumers at home and in institutional healthcare facilities. It is also the world’s first Self Transfer System (STS) — with UpLyft, you can transfer yourself from your bed into a wheelchair (or the reverse).
UpLyft is currently scaling manufacturing capacity and accepting pre-orders for those in need.
Support the development of this revolutionary technology by pre-ordering today!