Safe patient handling equipment is essential to helping healthcare organizations meet their goals, both in preventing staff and patient injuries and in offering excellence in patient care. But the important task of choosing high-quality equipment does not end with purchase and installation. A strong preventative maintenance (PM) program is critical to providing assurance that your healthcare organization can meet its safe patient handling goals. Additionally, it helps ensure adherence to all regional, national or international compliance and regulatory requirements for your equipment.
Savaria’s PM program, Handicare Plus, helps to ensure that your safe patient handling equipment is maintained in reliable working order, supporting caregiver and patient safety and assisting your organization with meeting regulatory requirements and reducing liability and costs.
When it comes to safety, reliability is critical. Safe and reliable equipment is a major asset to healthcare organizations. If your safe patient handling equipment fails, the downstream effects can be time-consuming and costly.
Preventative maintenance programs allow you to be proactive, not reactive. Like anything mechanical, without routine maintenance and inspections of your patient handling equipment, your organization may miss opportunities to correct potential problems before they become mission critical.
Along with providing assurance that you can avoid the above challenges, a robust PM program has some core compliance benefits that ultimately help healthcare organization meet compliance and regulatory benchmarks and be prepared for audits.
Depending on your healthcare organization’s local regulatory bodies, your safe patient handling equipment is subject to required maintenance at regular intervals and may also have reporting requirements, especially if an injury occurs due to faulty equipment. This is true for the Occupation and Safety Health Administration (OSHA), OH&S and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS).
Adhering to these standards also helps you maintain facility accreditation and in some cases, meet benchmarks critical to reimbursement, such as Star Ratings for long-term care facilities in the United States. This can include key indicators such as patient safety ratings due to complications like falls with injury and pressure injuries — which could increase due to lack of functional equipment.
A good preventative maintenance program should go beyond routine inspections and servicing of equipment. Although these are key to an effective PM program, there are other elements you should also prioritize when choosing a PM program.
Handicare Plus offers premium support that goes beyond simple equipment maintenance. Savaria’s product categories span all safe handling needs, with research and clinically based equipment ranging from beds to ceiling and floor lifts, transfer aids, slings, and more.
Our factory-trained technicians are the experts on these products with hours of training in the field, ensuring your equipment is maintained according to manufacturer specifications and that your warranty is not voided by unauthorized repairs.
Tiered PM program plans are available to meet your organization’s budgetary requirements and equipment demands.
If you’re ready to learn more about Savaria’s Handicare Plus preventative maintenance program for your safe patient handling equipment, call 1- 877-3040-5438, and we’ll show you how we can help you stop worrying about equipment maintenance.
Advancements in technology have given kids with special needs and mobility issues more freedom than ever before! Depending on the mobility equipment, babies as young as eight months old can learn to explore their surroundings more independently, and older children with cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and other medical conditions are able to gain more of the autonomy every child desires.
As with any big change in life, adapting to new mobility equipment comes with a steep learning curve. But by giving your child the adjustment period they need and being by their side as they overcome their struggles, they’ll gain the confidence they need for this new adventure!
Here’s how a little planning and patience can go a long way in helping your child.
While this time in your child’s life is an exciting one, it’s important to remember it can be an overwhelming one as well, and they’ll need a hand to hold throughout the process. Together with their care team and your equipment vendor, you can help empower your child and ensure they’re ready to take on the world with their newfound freedom!
Children with special needs see their bedrooms in different ways. For kids with autism, sensory processing disorder or developmental disabilities, their bedroom is their escape from an overwhelming world—the one place where they can relax and recharge when their day gets too stressful. For children who are ill or homebound, on the other hand, it can feel like a box they’re confined to day in and day out.
That’s why it’s so important to customize your child’s bedroom to their personality and special needs. Together, you and your little one can dream up a comfortable, welcoming sanctuary that gives them a safe space to play, learn and imagine, and most importantly, forget about the struggles they face on a daily basis.
Here are some recommendations to keep in mind as you and child play interior designer:
For additional recommendations on creating the ultimate at-home getaway for your child, talk with their physical or occupational therapist. They can recommend room layouts, products, and furniture that will give your child the freedom and independence they crave and give you peace of mind knowing that they’re playing safely in a bedroom they love.
Purchasing a ceiling lift or floor lift can be a daunting task especially if this is your families first purchase. Like buying a new car the features are endless and understanding all the options available is key to making an informed decision.
Lift products fall into two main categories: ceiling lifts and floor lifts. Both are designed to assist your loved ones with their everyday accessibility needs, but your decision to pick one over the other will be very situational.
A ceiling lift is a device that transports a loved one along an overhead track system, the lift works alongside a sling that holds the loved one securely during the transfer.
There are two main types of ceiling lifts: fixed and portable.
A fixed ceiling lift is a permanent fixture in the room and uses a track system mounted on the ceiling, the ceiling lift runs along the track during transfers. A fixed ceiling lift with an X-Y track system provides greater versatility with movement in two different directions. Ready to be used with no set up required, a fixed ceiling lift like our C-300 can provide loved ones with greater autonomy and takes up no space on your floor.
A portable ceiling lift like our P-440 uses a free-standing track system that needs to be set up and can be taken down with each use. It is easily portable and can be moved from room to room, used in different homes and is great for traveling while on vacation. Another advantage is that it can be completely dismantled with no permanent installation necessary.
Both ceiling lift types provide safe transfer of your loved one with very minimal force from a bed to a chair or commode, they can also be used to reposition in bed and are considered the most versatile solution for safe patient handling.
Your decision to pick a fixed ceiling lift over a portable one will depend on what your needs are.
Are you looking for a solution that you can take anywhere? Do you travel, vacation or spend a lot of time at your cottage? Are you planning to move anytime soon? Do you want to avoid a permanent installation in your home? Then a portable ceiling lift with a free-standing track system like our FST-300 sounds like the right choice for you.
Do you want to avoid constantly having to set up a track system to get your lift up and running? Is floor space top priority and would prefer a solution that is out of the way? Do you want total versatility that comes with an X-Y fixed track system? Is your loved one looking for an autonomous solution? A fixed ceiling lift with a track system sounds perfect for your home.
Floor Lifts offer the same transfer options as a ceiling lift but in a fully portable platform. The device consists of a frame built on castor wheels, a mast with a steering handle and a boom that safely raises and lowers the patient. Like a ceiling lift, a sling is used to hold the patient securely in place during the transfer.
Floor lifts can easily move room to room and are perfect for dining areas and hallways, they can also be moved out of the way when not in use. If you’re working within a budget a floor lift is a more cost-effective than a ceiling lift, our Carina350 floor lift is a perfect economical option. Floor lifts require more exertion and two people to operate, but if that’s not a concern for you then adding one to your home is a great choice for your loved one.
At the end of the day, you should feel confident knowing that the lift you choose will be making everyday life easier for not only your loved one but also the people that help them live a more accessible life. The decision is up to you and should be based on what the needs are for your family, home and loved one, whatever choice you make you’ll be improving their quality of life greatly.
Ready to speak to one of our mobility experts? Call us today 1- 888-637-8155 or request a callback.