Experience in prevention of risks caused by manual movement of patients in a health institution

: In its hospitals, the local Reggio Emilia Division of the National Health Service has introduced beds and stretchers with up-and-down movement systems, electrical lifters for patients, and highly mobile trained more than one thousand workers in the correct execution of maneuvers for moving patients manually platforms and litters for transferring patients from stretcher to bed. The Division has also. The risk evaluation models available in the literature have proved to be inadequate for instituting a program of improving service or for adequately supporting the doctor in charge. To overcome these limitations, a standard of risk evaluation called SpoSo ("Spostamenti Sollevamenti"--"Moving and Lifting") has been experimentally adopted.