Reducing manual handling injury in aged care

The problem

Manual handling injuries among care staff are a recurring cost — in lost shifts, in workers' compensation claims, and in staff retention. Three aged care facilities reviewed their transfer and repositioning equipment against their actual incident data to see what would move the number.

What each facility changed

• Introduced slide sheets (EasiGlide™) and a rigid slide board (EasiSlide™) as the default for lateral transfers, rather than manual lift techniques.
• Replaced ageing mobile hoists with EasiLift™ units sized to the current resident case mix.
• Standardised sling selection using colour-coded sizing to cut down wrong-size sling use at the bedside.

What to take from this

Equipment alone doesn't fix manual handling risk — it has to be matched to the case mix and staff actually have to reach for it instead of defaulting to manual technique. The facilities that saw the clearest change paired new equipment with a short refresher on when to use it.