Abstract
Transporting patients in beds and stretchers throughout hospitals is a significant manual handling concern for transport teams, nurses, and nursing aides. The objective of this study was to evaluate a power-drive intervention when pushing beds and stretchers with different weight patients. Twelve participants were part of a laboratory simulation where beds and stretchers were pushed down a straight away, around a corner, down a ramp, and up a ramp with and without utilization of the power-drive feature. Peak three-dimensional spine loads were estimated during the trials. In all, power-drive reduced the three-dimensional spine loads by 8%-21% as compared to the manual pushing of the beds and stretchers. Larger reductions were found for the tasks performed with the bed as opposed to the stretcher. The inexperience of the participants may have reduced the benefit of the power-drive as they appeared to not use it to the full extent. To minimize the loads being placed on healthcare providers' spines and reduce the potential for injury hospitals should implement power-drive technologies on beds and stretchers.