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Washington First State to Mandate
Patient Lift Equipment
March 13, 2006
Washington’s pioneering Safe Patient Handling law is the first
legislation in the United States to require hospitals to provide
mechanical lift equipment for the safe lifting and movement of
patients.
Washington House Bill 1672, which passed the House of
Representatives 85 to 13 and the Senate 48 to 0, was signed into law
by Washington State Governor Christine Gregoire (D) on March 8,
2006.
Healthcare workers continually rank among top occupations for
work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Washington’s ground-breaking
law provides a model for all of the states and the nation to mandate
protection of nurses, nursing assistants, and other healthcare
workers against injury related to manual patient lifting by the use
of modern technology designed for the task.
Significantly, passage of Washington’s Safe Patient Handling law
occurred during National Patient Safety Awareness Week, which was
March 5-11, 2006. The new law will protect Washington patients from
unintentional pain and injuries, such as skin tears, bruising,
dislocations, and being dropped, which sometimes occur during
attempts to lift and move patients manually.
On a timeline between February 1, 2007, and January 30, 2010,
Washington hospitals must take measures including implementation of
a safe patient handling policy and acquisition of their choice of
either one readily available lift per acute care unit on the same
floor, one lift for every ten acute care inpatient beds, or lift
equipment for use by specially trained lift teams.
The new law also provides for hospital employees to refuse to
perform, without fear of reprisal, patient handling or movement
which the employee believes in good faith would expose a patient or
employee to an unacceptable risk of injury.
Hospitals will be assisted financially with implementation of safe
patient handling programs by reduced workers’ compensation premiums
and tax credits covering the cost of purchasing mechanical lifting
or other patient handling devices.
Learn more: www.wingusa.org, Work Injured Nurses’ Group USA
-- Anne Hudson, RN, BSN
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