Memo - Patient Assists

March 31, 2025

Patient Assists

We need to clarify what we should be doing when called to "assist" a patient.

"You observe people, you touch patients."

This is the only way to delineate who's who. The old term "lift assist" found us trying to determine if that's all they needed, or more. How did this happen? How did they end up on the floor? How have they been feeling? What are the other medical issues?  OPQRST. Do they have any fractures/dislocations? Do they have bumps, bruises, hematomas? What does their quick neuro exam show us?

Previously what we wanted to be able to do was take one quick look and say, "they look okay to me". Then we'd lift that person… Actually, lift that patient into bed. And we’d go back to quarters and not write a report. And, unfortunately, we could and did miss some important findings… Not usually but too many times.

Bottom line, if you touch a person, they become a patient and all patients get reports. You don't have to write a book, but you do need to be necessarily thorough. If it is non-transport, tell us why.

By the way we are addressing problems with some facilities calling us way too often just because of their protocol or because they do not want their personnel to lift people. Stay tuned.