NTI - Reducing Nurse Injury Rates and Improving Patient Outcomes, Linet Hercules Interview

Nurse injuries are costly: for the nurse, for the facility, for the career field in general. Linet recently previewed a bed at NTI in Houston and allnurses was there! No one wants to experience an injury associated with patient care. Using an integrative approach, Linet developed a bed that assists the nurse to adequately care for a patient without increased risk of injury. We all know its not always possible to have extra help when turning patients, repositioning them in bed or ambulating them. This can lead to a nurse injuries and some of these injuries can be career-ending. Having intuitive equipment can reduce this risk.

Pressure injury reduction is also at the forefront of nurses and hospitals, especially critical care units where many patients are not ambulatory. In order to reduce these occurrences, Linet developed the Multicare bed powered by the Hercules Patient Repositioner. This bed has multiple modifications:

• Lift assist is feature where the bed actually moves the patient up in bed via an easy to use interface. There is no need for nurses to move the patient manually. This greatly reduces pressure points.
• Turn assist works by tilting the bed so that gravity assists with turning patients and the nurse closely observes the patient with minimal assist being utilized.
• Mobi-Lift provides for easy mobilization of the patient as the bed has varied height adjustments as well as strategically placed handholds for patient security.
• There is, of course, an integrated scale which can be adjusted for accessories or items that must be contained in the bed.

Allnurses' Community Manager, Mary, interviewed a Linet representative and received a hands-on demonstration with Judi, Assistant Community Manager as the patient.