Providers of specialist healthcare equipment, services, and Changing Places toilets

Early mobilisation – Saving time and money for hospitals

14th February 2019

Why is early mobilisation important?

For hospitalised patients, long periods of immobility increase the risk of:

  • Respiratory complications such as pneumonia, atelectasis and pulmonary embolism
  • Constipation
  • Incontinence
  • Tissue damage and pressure ulcers
  • Blood clots in the legs (deep vein thrombosis)
  • Reduced muscle mass and -strength
  • Reduced physical fitness
  • Diminished balance, especially among elderly patients

It is therefore extremely important to mobilise patients as early as possible – ideally during the period of hospitalisation.

Early mobilisation will enable patients to commence rehabilitation sooner, which will improve convalescence after an operation by boosting blood circulation and reducing the risk of infection and other complications.

Benefits of ceiling hoists and the positioning lock system

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 numbers

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.

Contact us today

For further information don’t hesitate to contact us on 0800 298 6000 or email [email protected]

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