Ergonomic Evaluation of the LiftSeat Patient Handling Technology to Facilitate Toileting Tasks

New approaches need to be adopted to achieve a safer process for the handling of movement of patients and this concept needs to be embedded into the culture of healthcare delivery. One particular patient handling task requiring improvement is toilet transfers. The standard technique used to transfer partially-dependent patients on and off a toilet requires manual assistance. To date, there is little or no evidence in the literature that quantifies the risk of injury to the caregiver specific to this manual task. As the patient population cared for presents with more comorbidities, is more obese, and more dependent, safer techniques and assistive technologies are particularly critical for the performance of patient handling tasks.