Injury Statistics

"One in four EMS workers will suffer a career ending back injury within the first 4 years of service. The number one physical reason for leaving EMS," (mytactical.com, EMS Back Injury Facts, 2007).

"Back injury from improper lifting is the number one injury suffered by pre-hospital care providers," according to New Mexico's EMT training manual.

“Almost one in two workers(47%) have sustained a back injury while performing EMS duties,” (National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians, 2005).

"Average cost for a 'simple' sprain or strain of the lumbar spine is approximately $18,365 in direct costs per occurrence," (Mitterre D., "Back Injuries in EMS," EMS Magazine, 1999).

Lifting caused just over 62% of back injuries for EMT's, and low back strain was the cause of 78% of the compensation days in a 3.5 year period, (Hogya PT, Ellis L., University of Pittsburgh Affiliated Residency in Emergency Medicine, PA, 1990).

Texas Law

On January 1, 2006, Texas will be the first state to implement the new law TX SB 1525, also known as the Lifting Law for Hospitals and Nursing Homes. It is likely that this law will spread to other states according to many healthcare organizations. Anne Hudson of the Work Injured Nurses Group USA, stated "With Texas the first state to succeed with passage of legislation, a number of other states continue working toward legislative protection of healthcare workers against preventable injury from manual patient lifting." (NJ State Nurses Assoc. email, 2005)

This law states "the governing body of a hospital or the quality assurance committee of a nursing home shall adopt and ensure implementation of a policy to identify, assess, and develop strategies to control risk of injury to patient and nurses associated with the lifting, transferring, repositioning or movement of a patient." (www.capitol.state.tx.us)