Current trends in European healthcare are well documented – longer life expectancy with a resulting growth in the elderly population, increasing levels of obesity, shortages of nursing staff, rising levels of staff sickness, increased demands on healthcare budgets and the subsequent requirement to drive greater efficiencies.
Equipment suppliers are responding by innovating new products that help to keep both patients and staff safe, while allowing nurses to work more efficiently and stay focused on providing high quality care. One area of innovation is in patient handling equipment – the stretchers and trolleys that provide a safe, practical and comfortable place to examine and treat patients, as well as move them around the hospital. Long distance transports, ramps, slopes and heavy patients can all increase the risk of back and shoulder injury for the caregiver. STRYKER makes stretchers that not only help nurses care for patients, but include ergonomic design and powered features to help reduce the effort and risk involved – an approach called BackSmart. For example, Stryker’s powered Zoom stretcher is part of the next step in the evolution of patient transport. Virtually effortless in pushing and steering, Zoom helps make slopes and ramps easy and safe. Another feature, the LiftAssist backrest, uses a counterbalance design to reduce the nursing effort in sitting a patient up.
