journal articles
EVALUATING THE IMPACT OF SAFE PATIENT HANDLING AND MOVEMENT LAWS ON NURSING HOME WORKER INJURIES
B.M. Jesdale, S.A. Chrysanthopoulou, C.E. Dubé, Kate L. Lapane
Jour Nursing Home Res 2018;4:36-41
Objectives: We estimated the impact of safe patient handling legislative efforts to reduce nursing home worker injuries, and examined potential impacts among specific nursing home types. Design: Difference-in-difference analysis. Setting: 2,034 nursing homes in 8 states enacting safe patient handling and movement legislation from 2004 to 2007 and 5,901 nursing homes in 36 comparator states. Measures: Reductions in reported work-related injuries and illnesses resulting in Days Away from work, Restricted job activities, or Transfer (DART) rates per 100 full time equivalents (FTE’s). Facility characteristics included size, profit orientation, chain membership, nursing staffing measures, and location (urbanicity). Results: Among nursing homes in 8 states that enacted legislation, there was a 23.5% decrease in mean DART rate from 7.53 per 100 FTE’s in the pre-enactment period (2002-2003) to 5.76 per 100 FTE’s in the post-enactment period (2008-2010) whereas in 36 comparator states, there was a 24.4% decrease in the mean DART rate, from 8.54 to 6.46 per 100 FTE’s. After adjustment for nursing home and aggregated resident characteristics, a difference-in-difference model showed that DART rates were similar in states with and without legislation (adjusted estimate: 1.03; 95% confidence interval: 0.96 to 1.11), with estimates similar across a range of nursing homes characteristics. Conclusions: The promise of enacting safe patient handling and movement legislation to reduce nursing home worker injuries has yet to be realized. In a context of rapidly declining injury rates, substantial financial incentives, other forms of assistance, and/or enforcement activities may be needed to improve the effectiveness of legislative initiatives.
CITATION:
B.M. Jesdale ; S.A. Chrysanthopoulou ; C.E. Dubé ; Kate L. Lapane (2018): Evaluating the Impact of Safe Patient Handling and Movement Laws on Nursing Home Worker Injuries. The Journal of Nursing Home Research Science (JNHRS). http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jnhrs.2018.8