[kde-edu]: John Rosatti, Caregivers Vow to Press Safe-Lifting Campaign -- Demonstration at Jackson Memorial Hospital Spotlights Safe-Lifting Equipment, Ambitious Online Petiti

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John Rosatti, Caregivers Vow to Press Safe-Lifting Campaign -- Demonstration
at Jackson Memorial Hospital Spotlights Safe-Lifting Equipment, Ambitious
Online Petiti



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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