HOSPITAL ERGONOMICS AND PATIENT SAFETY

Hospital ergonomics addresses the understanding of work in a health system where multiple “actors” (health professionals, patients and family members) interact, therefore it makes a decisive contribution to health organizations and to all those involved. Organizations often care more about patients than about their own workers, forgetting that patients safety also depends on the safety of the person providing healthcare. Materials and methods: The present study was carried out in a residential home for the elderly, called Valencia 2. The research consisted of the ergonomic analysis of various patient mobilization tasks performed by health professionals. To this end, the RULA (Rapid Upper Limb Assessment) and REBA (Rapid Entire Body Assessment) assessment methodologies were applied, which are widely used in the identification and analysis of risk postures associated with work tasks. Results and discussion: From the application of risk assessment methods, it was concluded that the task “lifting a dependent patient” by one worker presents the highest level of risk compared to the tasks “pushing an armchair with a user” by one worker and “lifting a user of the chair” by two workers.