Caregivers Vow to Press Safe-Lifting Campaign -- Demonstration at Jackson Memorial Hospital Spotlights Safe-Lifting Equipment, Ambitious Online Petition Drive

Vowing to keep the pressure on legislators until they pass a law to protect patients and caregivers from unsafe lifting, caregivers at Jackson Memorial Hospital demonstrated the latest lifting equipment and celebrated an online petition campaign that generated more than 3,200 letters to Florida legislators in just one week.

Miami, FL (PRWEB) May 7, 2007 -- Vowing to keep the pressure on legislators until they pass a law to protect patients and caregivers from unsafe lifting, caregivers at Jackson Memorial Hospital demonstrated the latest lifting equipment and celebrated an online petition campaign that generated more than 3,200 letters to Florida legislators in just one week.

"We are sending a message to legislators that if they do not pass this legislation -- our number one legislative priority -- we will be back ... and we will remember," said Martha Baker, RN, president of Local 1991 SEIU, which represents direct-care staff at Jackson Memorial Hospital. "The overwhelming majority of Floridians support this bill."

Baker praised state Sen. Alex Villalobos and state Rep. Yolly Roberson for introducing the Safe Patient Handling and Movement Act this session, and thanked Gov. Charlie Crist for his support. The bill cleared the Senate Healthcare Regulation committee unanimously, but the committees that deal with financing did not take it up.

"Nurses across Florida -- indeed, all across the country -- are united in our determination to gain these protections at work," said Baker, who is the head nurse of the Jackson Trauma unit. "We think the quality of healthcare we can deliver in our hospitals depends on it."

Jackson Memorial is working with Local 1991 to develop a voluntary safe-lift program under a labor-management partnership negotiated last year, but Baker warned that voluntary compliance statewide is not keeping pace with the increasing number of injuries. "We believe that it is imperative that federal and state standards be applied to protect patients and caregivers from unsafe lifting," she said.

The lift technology previewed and demonstrated at Jackson "would virtually eliminate the injuries that direct-care providers and patients suffer in Florida hospitals today," Baker said.

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