How to Get Your Administrator Onboard with Assistive Equipment

TLDR:

As a clinician, you know assistive equipment makes your job safer and your care more effective. What you might not realize is how directly it supports your facility’s goals—fewer injuries, faster recoveries, and real cost savings. When the right tools benefit everyone, gaining support becomes easier, and the case for assistive equipment practically makes itself.

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As a clinician, whether you are an occupational or physical therapist, your job at the rehabilitation hospital entails plenty of obstacles. You may be confronting a lack of adequately trained and experienced staff, a high risk of injuries to your patients due to falls, not to mention becoming overworked and saddled with outdated equipment. It seems therapists are always expected to do more with less. The challenges never seem to end.

You know firsthand how helpful and beneficial assistive equipment can be when it comes to making your job easier and more effective. Assistive equipment not only protects patients from exacerbating their already serious injuries and even disabilities, but it also enables you to spare your body from harm.

The question becomes how to convince your rehab hospital administrator to invest in assistive equipment for the betterment of you and your patients. How do you speak directly to their needs when it comes to dollars and sense?  How do you help your administrator realize that this specialized equipment will actually help to return a cost-saving to your medical facility? Knowing their mind is focused on consistently turning a profit and getting patients back to being independent as quickly as possible, how do you convey the right information in the most influential manner so they realize that assistive equipment will lead to better patient outcomes and a stronger bottom line?

Types of Patients That Assistive Equipment Can Benefit

Bariatric Patients – Patients who typically weigh anywhere from 400 pounds to 1,000 pounds present significant risks when it comes to being especially susceptible to falls and injuries. This is particularly the case during machine transfers and movements to different rooms.

Orthopedic and Surgical Recovery Patients – Orthopedic and surgical recovery patients are vulnerable to injuries during the rehab process because of their weakened state of the injured area. They are struggling to regain strength and function. They are also prone to overexertion during exercises.

Stroke and Neurological Comprised Patients – These types of patients are more likely to sustain injuries due to a combination of factors that include sensory deficits, impaired motor function, cognitive challenges, as well as potential secondary complications such as falls or infections, which can bring about more injuries.

Patients with Weight-Bearing Restrictions – Patients who have weight-bearing restrictions pose a real risk for injuries because of their significant lack of mobility.

All of these types of patients can greatly benefit from their therapists utilizing proper equipment. As we will present in an upcoming section, assistive equipment offers numerous advantages to patients afflicted with various types of injuries and other physical setbacks. 

The Real and Tangible Costs Associated with Patient Transfers

As was discussed in a previous blog post, occupational and physical therapists regularly suffer musculoskeletal disorders during their jobs. As they seek to maneuver and transfer patients, therapists are at great risk of physical impairment.

These workplace injuries will inevitably affect your rehabilitation hospital’s bottom line in the form of increased workers’ compensation claims and other staffing costs. Successive injuries can also lead to higher turnover rates of clinicians, which adds to the cost of doing business for rehab hospital administrators.

The use of assistive equipment in your rehab medical facility can often prevent many of these potential injuries from occurring. Here are just some examples of where assistive equipment can help to mitigate or outright stop harm from coming to the patient or physical therapist.

Transferring Patients from their Bed to their Wheelchair

               This is considered a high-risk maneuver because of the need to lift and support a significant amount of weight if this involves a bariatric patient, for example.

Assisting a Patient with Standing Up

             Improper body positioning while assisting a patient to stand can strain the therapist’s back and shoulders.

Repositioning a Patient in Bed 

          Frequent repositioning of patients who are of considerable weight, severely medically compromised, or have little or no mobility, can lead to significant strain on the therapist’s body.

Bottom-line Benefits of Assistive Equipment for Your Rehab Hospital 

Ultimate Safety for Patients – Again, for patients who are obese or particularly compromised with their mobility, they are at greater risk for falls and injuries when therapists transfer or reposition them. But assistive equipment is designed to protect patients up to 1,000 pounds. The right equipment also prevents discomfort and skin breakdown.

Bottom-Line Benefit:  This leads to cost savings for administrators as fewer accidents with injuries will occur.

Enhances Quality of Patient Care – Easier mobility prevents complications of immobility, supports better hygiene, and enables therapists and other staff to concentrate on delivering medical care as opposed to physical maneuvers.

Bottom-Line Benefit:  Patients will heal faster and regain their mobility more efficiently. This leads to shorter stays in your rehab hospital.

Increases Dignity and Independence – Obese and other mobility-compromised patients are likely to feel vulnerable or embarrassed when they require extra staff to help move them. Assistive equipment enables self-transfers or minimizes handling by multiple therapists.  With assistive equipment, the patient’s countenance changes dramatically, as they transform from being discouraged to feeling good about themselves.

Bottom-Line Benefit:  As a patient’s attitude and outlook improve, their ability to cooperate with their therapist and get the most out of their rehab treatment elevates. This translates into lower costs because patients have shorter stays at your medical facility.

Adapts to Individual Patient Needs – Assistive devices can be customized and tailored to meet the particular needs and abilities of each patient. This ensures optimal functionality and comfort.

Bottom-Line Benefit:  The ability for assistive equipment to enable physical therapists to customize patient rehab treatment translates into superior outcomes for patients and faster turnaround times for patients reclaiming their independence. This results in reducing the cost of doing business at your rehab hospital.

Maximizes Staffing Efficiency – Assistive equipment enables one therapist to treat patients who previously required two or three clinicians.

Bottom-Line Benefit:  The greater efficiency that this specialized equipment provides can lead to a reduction in payroll expenditures.

Avoid Lawsuits and Clinician Injuries – While assistive equipment presents greater upfront costs, it has the enormous potential to reduce staffing needs, worker injuries, and lawsuits in the future. Assistive devices also help to prevent expensive medical complications.

Bottom-line Benefit:  Assistive devices have the potential to reduce medical expenses for your rehab hospital.

Patients Achieve Early Mobility and Recovery – Assistive equipment can particularly help bariatric patients who have undergone surgery achieve early mobility and reclaim their independence faster. Implementing a structured rehabilitation plan that includes bariatric-safe patient handling equipment can significantly improve outcomes.

Bottom-line Benefit:  As a result of faster healing from a more efficient rehab treatment program, patients spend less time at your rehab hospital, thus curtailing your labor costs.

Positive Patient Experience Improves Satisfaction and Increases Referrals – As patients enjoy the physical and psychological benefits of assistive equipment and realize how it improves their outcome, their satisfaction levels rise and they are more likely to refer their loved ones, friends, and co-workers to your medical facility.

Bottom-line Benefit:  More patient referrals translate into more people coming to your rehab facility for treatments. That results in a bigger profit margin. 

Consider the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Barihab™ Rehab Equipment

Unlike traditional assistive devices that often require multiple transfers, the Barihab™ Treatment and Assessment Platform combines several rehab tools into one versatile, all-in-one solution. Its hand-controlled sit-to-stand technology, integrated partial weight-bearing scale, adjustable components, and real-time digital feedback ensure patients experience comfort, elevated confidence, and faster progress. For rehabilitation centers focused on efficiency, innovation, and measurable patient success, Barihab™ represents the next evolution in patient care.

Barihab™ equipment serves to replace mat tables, standing frames, and parallel bars. The efficiency that this innovative equipment offers when it comes to more effectively serving the needs of your clinicians has the potential to positively impact your rehab hospital budget.

Therapeutic Industries, with its Barihab™ revolutionary technology, can simplify your workflow by helping your patients to reclaim their independence faster and do so with greater comfort and ease. Your clinicians will greatly benefit by being able to maneuver patients and move them with the aid of Barihab™ equipment. Your bottom line will reap the benefits of far fewer workers’ compensation claims, as therapists are much less likely to suffer what could otherwise amount to debilitating injuries.

Assistive Equipment Has Potential to Boost Your Medical Facility’s Bottom Line

Assistive equipment has the potential to make a clinician’s job easier and a patient’s outcome better. Both ends of this spectrum can strengthen your medical facility’s profit margin. Many types of rehab patients – from the neurologically impaired, to stroke victims, to bariatric patients – can benefit from the comfort, efficiency, and convenience of assistive equipment.

So many aspects of the use of this specialized equipment resonate with cost savings. Investing in high-quality assistive equipment can be a huge win for the health of your patients, staff, and your financial bottom line.