The medical center is saving money. Employees are avoiding injury. Future nurses are getting early exposure to hospital work. And patients are appreciative. It is all the result of the newly established Lift Team at the UC Davis Medical Center.

The team is achieving the purpose for which it was formed: the protection of nurses and other staff from pain and injuries suffered from lifting patients. Since the team began doing its work in December, there have been no worker's compensation claims arising from patient lifts, according to Jill Evans-Grinbergs, an analyst in the Worker's Compensation unit of Human Resources.

In fiscal year 2002-03, the unit received 38 injury claims related to patient lifting or moving. In fiscal year 2003-04, the unit received 47 injury claims of this variety. All 23 claims from the current fiscal year occurred prior to December.

Shirley Thomas, manager of the Lift Team, said many nurses have reported that, since the team has been available, they no longer go home in pain after their shifts.

Requests for the team have increased from an initial volume of 40 per 24 hours to as many as 140 for the same period. That increased demand reflects the praise nurses have heaped on the Lift Team, said Linda Cook, assistant nurse manager for the medical intensive care unit, noting: "They are not only strong and efficient, but they perform their work with enthusiasm and friendliness."

Patient Care Services and Worker's Compen-sation joined to create the Lift Team. The team has a total of nine employees, who work on two-person teams in 12-hour shifts, one during the day and one at night. The team is available 24 hours per day, seven days a week. Nurses may request help from the team when they have a patient who weighs 200 or more pounds, or requires more than one nurse to lift.

Two of the Lift Team members were working in other positions at the medical center; the remaining seven were hired from outside the health system. Thus far, all team members have been men, but a woman was recently hired for the program. Team members had been working as firefighters, emergency medical technicians and paramedics, or studying to become nurses.

Before accepting assignments, Lift Team members received instructions in body mechanics from physical therapists from the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. During the initial stage of the team's rollout, physical therapist Janet Ford took time daily to show stretching exercises to the members at the beginning of their shifts, and then interview them at the end of their shifts to determine if they were experiencing pain or discomfort.

Team member Johnny Vera is taking prerequisite courses at Sacramento City College for becoming a registered nurse. He applied for the job because of his interest in working in a hospital setting. "It's been great, because all of the nurses are really nice to us," Vera said. "They really appreciate it. We get to talk to a lot of patients and their families."

Another team member, Daniel Jones, is a former firefighter at Travis Air Force Base and a current, full-time student at UC Davis. "I love it here, being able to help patients," Jones said. "You really know you're making a difference."

An unexpected benefit of his job, Jones said, is the camaraderie the team has developed with the nurses, and the knowledge he is gaining from them. "I'm picking up a lot of medical terminology," Jones said. "I didn't expect the rapport to be as strong with the nurses."

Both Jones and Vera said patients and their families have expressed appreciation through cards, letters, e-mails and gift certificates.

They also noted that some nurses do not know about the Lift Team or do not realize it can be summoned even for lifts that cover a short distance, such as from a bed to a chair.

Before it established a Lift Team, the medical center had available a number of pieces of equipment and materials to help nurses lift patients. Among them are slip sheets placed underneath patients, hydraulic devices and other technologies.