“Musculoskeletal injuries have been reported to comprise about 43% of all nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses reported that the musculoskeletal injury rate for health care workers (252 cases per 10,000) was more than seven times the average national rate for all occupations (1).” For nursing, various workplace conditions such as physical environment (e.g., layout and organization of work stations), work organization and culture (e.g., heavy workload, inadequate staffing, lack of education), and work activities (e.g., manual lifting of patients, lack of assistive devices), can lead to these musculoskeletal injuries.
Overexertion Injuries
These injuries can be devastating to workers, but health care organizations are also directly affected. “Overexertion injuries due to lifting, carrying, pushing, and pulling ranked highest in direct costs to businesses at $13.6 billion (1).” Any measures that can be taken to reduce and eliminate these activities have a direct impact on the bottom line.
Refrigerators are often transported to various units and patient rooms throughout the hospital for the convenient storage of medications and mother’s milk. These small medical refrigerators can weigh anywhere from 70-200lbs depending on the size. Having a safe and effective way to transport these medical-grade refrigerators plays an important role in reducing the risk of musculoskeletal injuries. Specially designed carts for transporting refrigerators lower the risk of injury and enhance safety.
Facility Design Injuries
The way facilities are designed alters how nurses interact with the environment and what motions are consistently required to complete their essential tasks such as retrieving medication from medication rooms. Supply stations may require nurses to squat, bend, stoop, or strain to retrieve needed items. These movements create awkward postures when having to retrieve things from low shelves and storage compartments.
This same scenario can also be an issue with the positioning of a refrigerator and nurses retrieving refrigerated medications which are located too close to floor level. Refrigerator pedestals allow smaller units to be raised up off of the floor to reduce the stress and strain required to retrieve refrigerated medications. These pedestals and carts allow the refrigerator to remain at an ergonomically ideal height for nurses and other staff members.
Carts and pedestals offer greater versatility for your refrigerator or freezer. They are designed for raising units to a more comfortable working height or transporting to multiple locations. Medical carts and pedestals are used in hospitals, clinics, private health practices, pharmacies, and more. To learn more about cart and pedestal options available from Helmer Scientific, view the brochure by clicking the link below.
1. Bonnie Rogers, Kathleen Buckheit, Judith Ostendorf Workplace Health & Safety 10 2013 ; vol. 61, 10 : pp. 429-439.
