Technology matters most when it is reliable and delivers meaningful impact for care givers and their patients. Baxter’s Safe Patient Handling team has built trust with health and care professionals internationally, to deliver the right mobility solutions for their needs.

In the Swedish city of Luleå, technology is being built that impacts the lives of patients and caregivers around the world. Known for its UNESCO heritage sites, art, and natural landscapes, Luleå is also home to Liko, one of the world’s first manufacturers of patient mobility lifts and slings.

We are lifting human beings, and that comes with a responsibility.
— MAGNUS EDIN, LULEÅ PLANT MANAGER

Now part of Baxter, the safe patient handling product range has built a strong reputation for quality over nearly half a century, working collaboratively with health and care customers to deliver the highest standards. Its products are designed to protect caregivers from injury when they move patients, enable early mobilisation and rehabilitation of patients in hospitals and care settings, and support greater independence and quality of life for many people in their own homes.

Designing Genuine Solutions to Daily Mobility Challenges, With Customers
In supporting the safe movement of patients, lifts and slings are deployed in a wide range of health and care settings, and private homes. Ensuring installations fulfil user needs means working with customers to understand and address specific requirements – for example, delivering the most appropriate equipment that doesn’t disrupt a busy ICU or imaging department, or that blends into an individual’s home.

“We don’t sell products, we create solutions with our customers,” says safe patient handling specialist Linda Ekwall. “Everything we do is grounded in customer needs. We support and advise customers in their daily challenges around moving patients.”

Whether advising on the purchase of a single lift for an individual ward or patient, or supporting customers constructing entire new healthcare facilities, Baxter professionals are valued by customers for sharing specialist insights to achieve best practice solutions for each situation.

This is helping care providers, hospitals, and healthcare regions, to drive best value for money, support optimal patient outcomes, and deliver the greatest support for caregivers.

Putting Products to the Test, Driving Standards
Feedback from customers suggests Baxter solutions are known to be reliable, suitable for purpose, and fully functional throughout their lifetime. Technicians remark how easy it is to maintain equipment that is designed to withstand the rigors of being heavily used and moved between sites and care environments.

“We are lifting human beings, and that comes with a responsibility,” says Luleå plant manager, Magnus Edin. “We comply with the highest standards in everything we do when it comes to safety and quality. Each and every lift is individually produced by hand, and tested by hand before it goes to the finished goods warehouse.”

Standards complied with include IS0 10535, which focuses on the safety of mobile and stationary lifts, ISO 9001 with a focus on quality management, and the environmental management standard ISO 14001.

Extensive tests are carried out during design stages, to ensure products fulfil customer needs. And many further tests are carried out during production and manufacturing.

“People working in our manufacturing are very proud of the products,” says Ola Strand, manufacturing engineering & facility manager for the Baxter Luleå plant. “They have a strong sense of safety and what the products will be used for by our customers,” he adds.

“Most often it is people who are sick or elderly using our slings. Our people often think it could be their own grandmother using the product.”

Visual inspection is performed by the most experienced operators, with extensive automated testing performed on lifts, which are tested to safe working loads.

People Supporting People, Clinical Expertise
Many employees working in Baxter’s safe patient handling business have been team members for years or even decades – offering both organisational memory and extensive expertise to customers.

This includes clinical experts embedded into design and production teams – who can quickly identify what is likely to work.

“Our medical specialists give us an understanding of needs in different care settings,” says senior supply chain manager Niklas Eriksson. “They provide the reality check that we are creating products that will benefit customers.”

Supporting Outcomes That Matter: Helping to Enhance Lives of Patients and Caregivers
Evidence suggests that early mobility is helping to deliver benefits to patients. ¹ Healthcare teams have reduced length of stay in high acuity settings like ICU, and in hospital ¹, as well as reducing caregiver back injuries.²

Beyond hospitals, solutions are also supporting people in their everyday lives. “Our solutions are being used to keep people active in their lives, and able to do activities that are important to them and to their families,” says Linda Ekwall.

She adds: “Caregivers have the tools needed to do their jobs safely, with reduced risk of injury, as they mobilise and reposition patients,” something done many times each day.

Investing for the Future, Remaining Sustainable
A culture of continuous improvement reflects an ambition to continue to deliver better solutions for customers. The Liko plant in Luleå was awarded Sweden’s lean prize in 2021, and the team remains committed to enhancing manufacturing processes.

Delivering on environmental sustainability commitments is an increasingly important part of this. Production involves use of recyclable materials, and packaging design and logistics are treated in sustainable ways.

The Luleå facility itself is already carbon neutral, using geothermal energy for heating, LED lighting, and is not reliant on energy intensive manufacturing.

Baxter also continues to invest in the safe patient handling product portfolio, with substantial resources currently being invested in refreshing the current portfolio, and new product development a priority.

“We need to make sure we remain relevant to today’s standards and customer needs,” says Magnus Edin.

He adds: “Our clinical experts and our customers not only validate the effectiveness of our current solutions, but inform our future direction. This will help ensure our products remain easy to use, intuitive, relevant, and accessible.”

BAXTER AND LIKO ARE ONE TEAM!
FOR MORE INFO PLEASE CONTACT YOUR BAXTER REPRESENTATIVE.

References
1. Dickinson et.al. 2018 Integrating a Standardized Mobility Program and safe patient handling
2. Dang-Roberts-Murray-Wiggermann-2022-ROI for SPHM in the ICU 1