Lateral Patient Air Transfer
Lateral Patient Air Transfer is an industry that uses air-based systems to create safe patient handling and positioning. The industry focuses on bariatric and fragile patient care, hospital staff safety and hospital workers compensation.
Air transfer products use an inflatable surface that forces a constant volume of air out from beneath it to break the plane of friction, making the work of transferring patients safer for caregivers and patients.
Evolution of the industry
Traditionally, draw sheets were used to transfer patients from bed to stretcher. In 1984 the first air-based lateral patient transfer device was created in response to rising hospital workers' compensation rates. Devised from a piece of plywood and a 50’s Ford headliner, used as a pillow, an industry was born and has evolved since then to bring new products to caregivers and patients.
Products in the industry began as long air-filled mats that have progressed into several different versions with accessory products that assist in more than just the transfer of patients. One of the newest innovations is an air-filled ramp that is placed on top of an air transfer system. The basic idea of a ramp is to create three-dimensional positioning for procedures. When the patient is on the air-transfer system hospital staff can fill the ramp with air to lift the patient’s upper body and clear their airway, which makes intubation easier on hospital staff during anesthetization.
Safety of caregiver and patient
The leading cause of back injuries in the health care field is patient transfer. The repetitive task of lifting and handling patients from one spot to another creates a relatively high incidence of musculoskeletal disorders (MSD). The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that healthcare workers occupy six of the top ten occupations at highest risk for back injuries.
With the use of an air-transfer system only two hospital staff members are needed to transfer a patient, versus four or more. The weight is much lighter on the staff, and patients are moved without jerking or rolling, as they were when draw sheets were used to transfer patients.
Impacts on industry
Hospital workers' compensation rates
Air-based transfer systems were created in response to rising hospital workers compensation rates. Hospitals attempt to remedy the rising rates by providing an environment where staff members do not need to worry about work-place injuries. The leading cause of back injuries in the healthcare field is patient transfer, and air-based systems eliminate this issue; therefore reducing the need for workers compensation and lowering the rates.
Obesity and patient transfer
Obesity has become a national health and economic crisis in the United States and many countries in Europe. Statistics showing the ever-increasing prevalence of obesity in the last decade create implications for the healthcare system. In addition to the direct weight-related medical morbidities of obesity, hospitals face practical problems – how to care for, transport and move patients with severe obesity.
In the past, hospital staff members have had to go as far as to wake up a patient in the operating room for a patient to assist in their own positioning. With the increasing prevalence of severe obesity, hospitals face growing concerns of both patient and personnel safety in the transfer and care of patients. Hospitals continue to focus on this problem with the ultimate goal of providing aids to patient mobilization, such that patient care personnel need not be concerned about work-place injury and patient safety is maximized.
Other patient transfer systems
Concerns about safety in the workplace (both for the staff as well as the patient) have stimulated an interest in various modes of patient mobilization. Along with air-based transfer systems there are many different options including: swiveling floor boards, swiveling cushions, handling belts, and ceiling-mounted patient “lifts” to aid different types of patient mobilization, such as laying-to-sitting, sitting-to-standing, and support while walking.