A return-on-investment model using clinical and economic data related to safe patient handling and mobility programs in the ICU

Abstract

Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) programs are well-established to reduce patient-handling related injuries among healthcare workers (HCWs). Evidence also suggests SPHM practices promote early mobilization (EM) and help reduce preventable hospital-acquired complications among intensive care unit (ICU) patients. However, research on the economic benefits of SPHM is limited, particularly related to patient outcomes. These evidence gaps make it difficult for hospitals to accurately estimate return on investment (ROI) for a SPHM program implementation or expansion. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the evidence of SPHM programs on HCWs and patient outcomes necessary to develop a ROI model for the ICU setting. A structured search of SPHM literature on the following three key variables (1) HCW patient-handling related injuries, (2) hospital-acquired conditions, including pressure injuries (PI), ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), and venous thromboembolisms (VTE), and (3) ICU Length of Stay (LOS) and mechanical ventilator (MV) days, was conducted. Findings suggest significant heterogeneity in terms of sample sizes, patient populations, interventions, and outcome measures among studies conducted on these key variables. An example ROI model is presented to demonstrate how the published evidence and its variability can be used when estimating the potential economic benefit of SPHM in an ICU.Relevance to industry. This work provides a summary of literature findings and a demonstration of how facilities can use the published evidence to customize a ROI estimate for any proposed SPHM program implementation or expansion in the ICU.