Medical facilities lift their healthcare game with LINAK innovations

For many healthcare facilities, the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly contributed to the shortage of nurses in the nation’s hospitals and aged care facilities and the process of day-to-day patient care is even more critical than ever in maintaining the health, cleanliness, and dignity of their patients.

This is very relevant when using Patient Lifters to move patients from beds to wheelchairs and the bathroom. However, it is also imperative that ease of use of the equipment required to carry out this work is paramount, as well as preserving the wellbeing of the nurse or carer professional carrying out this process.

And while patient safety is paramount in healthcare, the medical equipment used to perform these processes is also required to provide efficiencies in the ‘total cost of the ownership’ value chain and improvements.

An ergonomic medical device with a modern design

The new LINAK LIFT50™ solution for patient lifters has been ergonomically designed with facility management and carers in mind. With streamlined looks, practical, easy-to-use interfaces and technically advanced wireless communication, it is designed to make lives less complicated for everyone.

Good design starts with the end user. As designers, we are responsible for creating devices that are immediately understandable and easy to use. For the LIFT™ series, LINAK asked users what was most important to them — a modern design with easy functionality and an emergency stop that was obvious but hard to hit by accident. We focused on making these features simple and intuitive.

However, simplicity is nothing without functionality. A patient lift is designed to save carers from a back injury when lifting or repositioning their patients; however, small repetitive actions such as bending to read the control box data screen or removing a heavy lead acid battery can also lead to work-related RSI injury. To minimise awkward unnecessary movements, the LED status lights have now been designed and positioned so that they can be seen from an upright standing position, making it a much more optimised experience for the user.

LINAK has also incorporated a lightweight Li-ion battery that can not only be removed and replaced by the simple use of one hand, thus minimising the risk of injury, but also significantly improves the usage time of the lifter by up to three times longer between charges, which in turn provides an improved ROI (Return on Investment) for the healthcare facility.

At LINAK, we know how busy you are and recognise that time is essential for the patient when moving and for nurse or carer efficiencies. That is why we have incorporated a turbo-boost function to improve workflow efficiency by up to 30% without compromising safety. With its turbo-boost function, LIFT50 cuts wasted waiting time to a minimum when moving the lift into position without compromising the patient’s safety.

Two integrated redundancy buttons provide the functionality of a handset to operate the main lift so that in a situation where the handset may be damaged, the nurse or carer can still safely be moved to their rest position, maintaining their comfort and dignity.

A hygienic medical device that reduces the risks of infections

Maintaining hygiene is crucial in reducing the risk of infection. For LINAK, safety is a way of life, and the hygiene of healthcare professionals and patients is our highest priority. Hospitals and care facilities are looking for solutions that can help them now and in the future. COVID-19 has revealed the weaknesses of a stressed healthcare system, so maintaining high hygiene standards is crucial in reducing the risk of infection. To help healthcare facilities fight against bacteria, LIFT50 has been designed to IPX6 water ingress standard for more aggressive washing conditions to help healthcare professionals in our common fight against bacteria and cross-infection.

To further enhance the hygiene of LIFT50 and all of our medical solutions, LINAK has also introduced the possibility of anti-microbial coating on their hand controls which provides the following benefits:

• Reduce bacteria by up to 99.99% — protection against antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria such as MRSA, VRE and CRE.
• Be effective against viruses — anti-microbial technology is proven to deactivate influenza A H1N1 and even reduce a strain of the coronavirus family by 90% in 2 hours.
• Reduce cross-contamination — a cleaner product means fewer microbes to transfer, ultimately reducing the potential for cross-contamination.
• Stay fresh for longer — fewer microbes means a reduced potential for staining and unpleasant odours, so your product stays fresher for longer, increasing its functional life cycle.
• An extended functional lifetime — lasting surface protection against microbial colonisation also minimises material degradation, ultimately extending the product’s lifetime.
• Be easier to keep hygienically clean — thanks to anti-microbial coating, your product will have around-the-clock protection against unseen microbes permanently.
• Be safe to use in various environments — supplying the suitable anti-microbial additive means your anti-microbial protected product can be used as it always has been without risk or concern.
• Offer lasting protection from bacteria — introduced during the manufacturing process, anti-microbial technology will not wear out or wash off, meaning it will last for the product’s lifetime.
   

All of which can contribute to the overall cost of ownership of many types of medical patient care and patient handling equipment.

Digitisation — future-proofing for tomorrow

Another hot topic in the Healthcare sector is digitisation. So future-proofing for tomorrow needed to be a key focus for the new LIFT50 to provide the opportunities for Facility Managers to implement or align with predictive or preventative maintenance programs for their equipment to eliminate expensive downtime costs associated with out-of-action equipment and repairs.

All LIFT50 systems are OneConnect ready — Bluetooth^® data exchange will allow LIFT50 to interface seamlessly with the new OneConnect digital solution from LINAK, providing the possibility to view live status info for nearby devices and quickly identify systems that need troubleshooting, cleaning, service, or have status notifications, like low battery and remote access to system data from remote devices via the cloud to discover usage history, feedback status, and troubleshooting systems from anywhere in the world to optimise your technical support process.

LINAK LIFT50 offers the opportunity of improving equipment maintenance and efficiency, so with optional wireless control and future-ready Bluetooth data exchange, you are ready for the next step on your digital journey.

For more information, click here.