Could the innovative use of ceiling hoists provide a bed blocking solution?

A bed blocking solution – sometimes it seems like everybody is looking for it! But could the use of ceiling hoists combined with innovative technology provide part of the answer?

Step forward the new positioning lock from V. Guldmann A/S. A small addition to a standard ceiling hoist system, it nevertheless provides a gamechanger in terms of rehabilitation.

A recent study by the Guardian included that many nurses do not have enough time to care for their patients properly, another study by the Nursing Times suggested that staff spend up to an hour PER SHIFT  looking for equipment! Who suffers as a result – the patient.

Benefits of early mobilisation

Additionally there are many studies that confirm that early mobilisation offers a whole range of benefits to patients, including faster recovery rates.

So part of the bed blocking solution is to mobilise patients faster, get them healed faster, get them home faster. But how are we to do this when staff are already overworked, and spending time looking for equipment?

How ceiling hoists can help

A ceiling hoist is a fixed piece of equipment, therefore staff do not have to look for it! this immediately saves them valuable time on every hoisting transfer. Furthermore a transfer using a ceiling hoist is proven to save a up to a minute per transfer. Multiply this by the two carers involved, that is two minutes, if a patient is being transferred from bed to chair and back three times a day, that is two minutes six times a day, 12 minutes, If there are 10 patients being hoisted, that is a total saving of 120 minutes per day – 2 HOURS!

This is before we factor in the positioning lock. By locking the hoist in place over the bed we can set up simple physiotherapy exercises for our patients. Instead of a physiotherapist having to hoist a patient out of bed, take them to the gym, work with them, take them back and hoist them back into bed, many exercises can now be set up on the bed. The physiotherapist can work with other patients whilst this is being done.

So now in addition to saving our nursing staff time, we are also saving our physiotherapists considerable amounts of time – a double bonus. Additionally due to the extra therapy, our patient will be ready for discharge earlier.

The economic case

An average bed costs the NHS £400 per day. Using the example of our 10 hoisted patients, if the average patient is in hospital for 8 weeks each bed sees 6.5 patients per year. If we can decrease each patients stay by just one day, in total we save 65 days for all the patients in one year! Multiply this by £400 per day and your total saving is £26,000. If you put in 10 ceiling hoists at £4,000 each, in 1.5 years you have paid for your equipment. And this is before we calculate the savings on staff time.

The human case

Apart from all the cold hard facts, surely if a person – a human being like you or me – has had a life changing injury or stroke or ABI they deserve the best chance to be rehabilitated as fast as possible, not left to languish due to lack of resources…

For more details on how the new positioning lock could help you avoid bed blocking, contact us on 024 7647 2600 or [email protected].

For more information on the positioning lock click here.