Ergonomic Evaluation of Electric Mobile Hoists

Abstract

Manual handling is known to be a major contributory factor in the high level of musculoskeletal injury among health care workers. One increasingly popular way to attempt to decrease total load handling is to use mechanical aids. There has been considerable growth in the range of moving and handling equipment being marketed to the health care industry but relatively little evaluation of its design or usability. Often purchasing decisions are made on an anecdotal basis from personal experience or recommendations and, while that information can be of considerable value, it will always be skewed by personal bias.

In order to provide robust ergonomic advice on which to base a purchasing recommendation for electric mobile hoists at a large teaching hospital, an ergonomic product evaluation was carried out consisting of both expert evaluation and user trials. The outcome is a purchasing recommendation for occasional use hoists (LIKO Uno, Oxford Major and Invacare Opale) and for frequent use hoists (LIKO Golvo and LIKO Uno). Although these are currently the recommended products, the results from the evaluation suggest that there is still room for design improvements.