Safe Patient Handling among STNA’s in Nursing Homes:
Compliance, Monitoring, and Continuous Quality Improvement of
Best Practices
Sponsored by Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation
Project Overview
Lost productivity from lower back injuries in workplaces
costs over $100 billions a year in the United States
alone. A significant fraction of such workplace injuries
are the result of workers not following best practices.
Previous studies have shown that a multifaceted approach
should be used to improve the situation. Hence, in this
project, we are integrating body mechanics training and a
technology-based real-time compliance tracking and
intervention solution to reduce workplace injuries. The
goals of the project include:
Technology-Based Real-Time Compliance Tracking and
Intervention System
In this project, we developed a novel computer-vision
based system to track the activities of consented workers
using the depth sensors, alert them on detection of
non-compliant activities, and produce cumulative reports
on their performance. Essentially, the system provides a
valuable set of services for both workers and
administrators towards a healthier, and therefore, more
productive workplace..
Ergonomics and Body Mechanics Training and Education
According to several comprehensive surveys on the
intervention programs, training on body mechanisms itself
has either no effect on reducing the injury rate of nurses
and nursing assistants, or only short-term effect.
Previous studies show that the assessment process in
competency training typically lacks consistency and is
uncertain. We have created educational modules to help
train STNAs and adapted our compliance tracking system for
competence training.