Do You Know Your Avoidable Costs?

The Avoidable Organizational Cost of Injuries From Manual Patient Transfers

Healthcare organizations routinely evaluate the cost of equipment, staffing, supplies, and operations. But one expense can be easier to overlook, the avoidable costs associated with injuries from manual patient transfers and handling.

When a caregiver is injured, the financial impact can extend beyond the initial medical claim. Lost-time claims, workers’ compensation expenses, restricted-duty time, replacement staffing, overtime, administrative time, and other injury-related expenses can all contribute to the overall cost.

Reducing those avoidable costs requires a safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) program utilizing the right equipment, effective training, demonstrated competency, and consistent use of the equipment when it is needed.

What Does an Injury From Manual Transfers and Handling Really Cost?

An Aon analysis of workers’ compensation claims found that patient-handling injury claims had the highest average cost among workers’ compensation causes of loss, averaging $14,100 per claim.[i]

And the workers’ compensation claim may represent only part of the expense. Non-insured costs may increase the total cost of a patient-handling injury by two to four times.[ii]

Turnover can add another layer of expense when an injury contributes to a caregiver leaving the workforce or changing roles. Replacing a nurse has been estimated at $27,000 to $103,000 per nurse, depending on the organization and location.[iii]

Match the Equipment to the Actual Handling Task

Organizations should evaluate the needs of individual departments and care environments rather than assuming one solution will address every situation. EZ Way’s In Step program, for example, begins with an evaluation of current SPHM practices, transfer techniques, equipment usage, and the specific needs of individual units before recommendations are made.

Likewise, looking at the tasks being performed when injuries occur can help reveal where avoidable costs may exist, and where safe patient handling practices may have the greatest impact.

Make Sure the Equipment Is Available

Owning appropriate equipment does not reduce avoidable costs if caregivers don’t use it.

Equipment availability should be treated as an operational issue, not simply an inventory issue.

Every organization should ask these two important questions:

• Is the equipment available and quickly accessible when we need it?

• What percentage of the time do we use the equipment when we should?

Those questions can uncover a gap that purchasing records alone will not reveal; whether equipment is actually available at the moment a caregiver needs to move a person and it ls located close enough that our staff actually use it when they should.

Training Must Go Beyond Initial Orientation

Providing equipment without adequate training can create another barrier to consistent use.

Training should address the specific equipment caregivers encounter in their department and include regular reinforcement training. EZ Way’s safe patient handling experts can help make sure you develop the right training program and develop documentation of competency.

Focus on Consistent Use

Perhaps the most important factor is also the simplest. The equipment has to be used.

Organizations should periodically evaluate whether staff are using equipment when indicated and, when they are not, determine why. Consistent monitoring can identify gaps and additional training needs.

What Can Happen When Organizations Address Avoidable Costs?

When all of the components of a SPHM program work together, they can have a measurable impact on helping to reduce both caregiver injuries and the costs associated with those injuries.

EZ Way case studies provide two examples.

In one four-year study involving a skilled nursing organization using EZ Way equipment, annual costs

associated with transfer-related injuries decreased from $371,371 in Year 1 to $15,405 in Year 4. That represents $355,966 less in annual injury-related costs by the fourth year or a 96% reduction in associated costs. During the same period, the organization reported a 76% reduction in transfer-related injuries.

A second case study followed the implementation of EZ Way safe patient handling solutions in

conjunction with the development of a safe patient handling program across 39 long-term care facilities. Before implementation, the organization reported 161 transfer-related injuries costing $1,722,701. By Year 3, those figures had declined to 21 injuries and $144,506 in injury-related costs.

That is over 1.5 million dollars less in annual injury-related costs compared with the pre-implementation period, along with an 87% reduction in the number of injuries.

Reducing avoidable costs is not simply about purchasing equipment. The combination of appropriate equipment, training, program development, and consistent safe handling practices create an environment in which reliance on manual handling can be reduced.

Reducing Avoidable Costs Requires a System

Organizations can take meaningful steps to reduce avoidable costs associated with unnecessary manual handling. EZ Way can help with evaluation, review and recommendations.

The goal is not simply to purchase more equipment. It is to reduce injuries and the avoidable costs associated with them.

Historical case-study results are provided as examples and are not a guarantee of future injury or cost reductions. Results may vary by organization, workforce, program implementation, equipment availability, utilization, and other factors. Organizations should review current policies, equipment instructions, and training requirements before implementation.

[i] Aon Risk Solutions, Health Care Workers Compensation Barometer: Actuarial Analysis (November 2018).

[ii] American Industrial Hygiene Association, Association of Safe Patient Handling Professionals, and American Nurses Association, Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM): A Process to Protect Health Care Workers and Recipients, version 1 (Falls Church, VA: American Industrial Hygiene Association, November 25, 2024), 54.

[iii] Yangmei Li and Cheryl B. Jones, “A Literature Review of Nursing Turnover Costs,” Journal of Nursing Management 21, no. 3 (2013): 405–418.