Cases overview

Dutch care organisation provides all resident rooms with ceiling hoists

SVRZ, a care organisation for the elderly in the Netherlands, has equipped all 1.450 resident rooms with ceiling hoist systems. What started with the construction of the new care facility Redoute in Sas van Gent culminated in a massive project in which all SVRZ employees and clients would experience the benefits of a ceiling hoist system.

While planning for the Redoute building, it was decided to install ceiling hoist systems. Like the rest of the Netherlands, SVRZ must contend with a tight labour market, physical strain on care staff and time pressure to provide the best care. They have been looking for solutions to retain staff, make the work less stressful and create more time for care. Ceiling hoist systems contribute to these goals, and the new Redoute building was the first place to implement this. SVRZ was soon convinced that the advantages of ceiling hoist systems for employees and clients at the Redoute should also apply to all other SVRZ facilities, employees, and clients.

To investigate this, a working group was formed to look at how this could be realised in all the existing buildings and how the installation of ceiling hoists would cause as little inconvenience to the clients as possible.
„We asked the staff what they wanted, and in the beginning, it was not everyone who was convinced“, says Angela Bras - SVRZ Board of Directors - „but because we saw so many advantages we went ahead, and the reactions are now excellent”.

Good implementation is important in projects like this. This consists, on the one hand, of proper planning and execution of the installation of rails and lifting modules and, on the other hand, of proper training and instruction. 

The planning and execution were particularly important in this project because all the ceiling hoist systems were installed in existing buildings.

This means, above all, ensuring that there was as little inconvenience as possible for care workers and residents.

Through good planning, consultation and agreements, the inconvenience for the care workers and residents was minimal. In fact, most of the residents enjoyed having the technicians around.

The advantage of good planning is that you can be flexible if necessary.

“We had an urgent placement of a resident at the Maxima location, but the installation at Maxima was planned for later,” says Christa Ettema, housing project manager at SVRZ, „however, after careful consideration with the people from Guldmann we decided that we would install a ceiling hoist system in one of the rooms at Maxima. That flexibility is very nice!“.

At SVRZ they were used to working with mobile lifters. Working with ceiling hoist systems is faster, easier, safer, and more comfortable. All SVRZ employees have been trained by Guldmann to experience the full scope of these advantages, to use the ceiling hoist system safely and to learn all about the many possibilities. In small groups, theory and practice were brought together and everyone went home with a certificate.

And how is it going with the ceiling hoist systems?
It is a huge success for SVRZ. A survey by Locomotion (on behalf of Gezond & Zeker) shows that care workers give the ceiling hoist system an average rating of 9 out of 10. That is exceptionally high. The care workers also experienced much fewer back (-18%), neck, shoulder, and arm (-26%) and knee (-42%) complaints.

SVRZ has provided all residents' rooms with ceiling lifts

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