Bill > S1213

This bill requires all healthcare facilities in Massachusetts, including acute-care hospitals, rehabilitation hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, and long-term care facilities, to establish safe patient handling programs. The key provisions include: - Requiring the creation of a safe patient handling committee with at least 50% frontline, non-managerial employees to design and oversee the implementation of the safe patient handling program. - Mandating that healthcare facilities conduct risk assessments and patient care ergonomic evaluations to identify strategies to minimize manual patient lifting and transferring, including the purchase and use of appropriate patient handling equipment like mechanical lifts and lateral transfer aids. - Providing specialized training on safe patient handling techniques to all healthcare workers who lift, transfer, or reposition patients. - Allowing healthcare workers to refuse to perform patient handling tasks that they believe will expose the patient or worker to unacceptable injury risk. - Requiring healthcare facilities to track, publish, and disseminate annual injury data related to patient handling. - Setting deadlines for healthcare facilities to acquire necessary safe patient handling equipment, such as at least one lift per unit and one lift for every ten beds. - Incorporating patient handling equipment and construction design considerations into plans for new healthcare facility construction or remodeling. The goal of this bill is to improve safety for both patients and healthcare workers by minimizing manual patient lifting and transferring through the use of appropriate equipment and technology.

Health and Social Services

https://malegislature.gov/Bills/191/S1213