Eden Medical Center uses patient lift system

Great news for nurses...helps with patients who have a few extra pounds...10% leave nursing every year due to injuries...who does all the lifting....great even for changing the bed...the hospital does an assessment to see what patients will need help, and you don't have to be over weight to need help...and those beds are made up and prepared to use the lifting device...I bet we see more of these at hospitals in the future as well...BD

CASTRO VALLEY, CA -- Lifting injuries plague the health care industry, costing millions of dollars in worker's comp claims every year. However, a Bay Area hospital is taking a proactive approach to reduce those injuries, and they're doing it with the help of some high-tech equipment.
Nurses are often the unsung heroes of medicine. Their jobs involve spending hours on their feet taking care of patients at the most vulnerable periods in their lives. However, what many don't realize is the physical toll the job takes on nurses' bodies.
A strange looking device designed in Sweden may be the answer to avoiding injuries. It's called the Viking Total Lift and can pick up and move a patient weighing up to 660 pounds with just the touch of a finger. A smaller version can move up to 440 pounds. "So, I think it's going to make it easier on all of us, the staff and the patients as well," says Winters.