Emergency Room
Mitigating Injury Risks for Patients and the Healthcare Team
On average, there are 139.8 million emergency department (ED) visits in the U.S per year. Of these visits, 13.1% resulted in hospital admissions (18.3 million), including 2.8 million admissions to critical care: 54% of visits required some type of imaging.1
Safe patient handling products play a crucial role in enhancing patient care and safety in the Emergency Room (ER), particularly in situations involving patient transfer, trauma, radiology, and repositioning.
- Patient Transfer – Air-assisted devices streamline the process of moving patients from Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to the ER, facilitate lateral transfers, and ensure smooth off-unit and radiology transfers, thereby minimizing the risk of injury to both patients and the entire healthcare team (nurses, respiratory therapist, clinicians, EMS providers).
- Trauma – During trauma cases, air-assisted products aid in nearly pain-free lateral transfers, targeted for patients experiencing moderate to severe pain. These advanced tools significantly reduce discomfort compared to traditional methods such as sheet or slide board transfers. In conjunction with air assist products, using disposable, single-use mats that absorb fluid/moisture will reduce room turnover time and simplify cleanup for the healthcare team.
- Radiology – In the ER radiology department, air-assisted devices are crucial in meeting the demand for constant STAT imaging. Their radiolucency allows them to remain under patients during imaging procedures, speeding up the process and reducing the burden on healthcare workers.
- Repositioning – Air-assisted devices support patient repositioning during critical procedures both Emergent and Non-Emergent, including but not limited to central line placement, intubation, wound care, wound repair, and joint reduction. These tools are especially beneficial when managing bariatric or sedated patients, as they allow for smoother, safer repositioning and require fewer staff per task.
The use of air-assisted devices in the ER ultimately improves workflow efficiency, patient outcomes and satisfaction, and caregiver safety.
Future Implications
We can predict that in the next 5 years notable technological advances will occur within the Emergency Department. The foreseeable future includes the use of AI into practice as well as wearable medical devices within the unit. All of which should help combat the need for comprehensive, quality care within the Emergency Department.
1.National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey: 2021 National Summary Tables, table 1, 3, 15, 23 [PDF – 830 KB]
