Health care workers get lift guidelines

AMHERST, N.Y. (WIVB) - Local health care workers will have some new guidelines to avoid being hurt when they lift patients at nursing homes.

Health care providers and facilities lose manpower and money when their workers are hurt. A new center at UB will show them how to avoid those injuries in the first place.

The university is opening a Safe Patient Handling Lab and Training Center to educate managers and workers. Some local facilities invested in new equipment along with training, and they saw great results. By showing employees doing the job right, employers saved millions in workers' compensation, and slashed lost workdays up to 90 percent. Now UB will share this information with even more facilities.

Senator Bill Stachowski said, "It will save money in health care. It will save money in lost work hours. It will save money in insurance coverage. The state would have been foolish not to put this money in."

Gaen Hooley of the NYS Nurses Association said, "Nobody tells you how dangerous our work can be. Nobody tells you how many people get injured every day and every year in the workplace. The more we talk about it, the better it is for every single health care worker out there and every single one of our patients."

According to one published report, nearly 30 percent of local businesses that received OSHA notices about high injury rates were nursing homes.