Corona Update: SURGE CAPACITY SOLUTIONS – The mobi is a mobile headwall (equipment consolidator) that can be set up in any space that has an electrical outlet: next to a chair, a bed, a cot in a hallway, a cafeteria, or anywhere patients need to be located. Click here for more information.

Early Mobility

Key Articles

Early mobility (patient ambulation) protocols are first implemented, there is an increased cost in time for both the nursing and support staff.

The benefits of early mobilization for improving patient outcomes has been particularly well-documented and doctors are relying heavily on standard respiratory treatments (including early mobility) for the alleviation of COVID-19 symptoms

Since the rise of COVID-19, hospitals have been placed under enormous strain, trying to balance patient care with staff safety and best-practice protocols with financial survival. Safe early patient mobilization requires a modest initial investment in staff time and resources that results in well-documented, clinically significant medical and financial benefits within weeks of implementation.

For hospitals, especially ICUs, reducing patient length of stay results in dramatic cost savings for both the individual patient and the hospital itself. Surveys done in both ICUs and across different units universally found that early mobilization dramatically contributed to improved patient turnover, improved patient outcomes, and millions of dollars in savings for the hospital.

Right now, hospitals in Spain and Italy have become hopelessly overwhelmed. Healthcare workers are releasing video clips that show coronavirus patients packed onto chairs and lying on floors, waiting for medical attention. Resources are so scarce that patients are lying on jackets and using their own bags as pillows. Healthcare facilities have fewer and fewer options for situating patients that desperately need access to multiple pieces of medical equipment, and as conditions in the United States worsen, these scenes may become all too common.

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the coronavirus (“COVID-19”) a “public health emergency of international concern;” a few weeks later, the Center for Disease Control & Prevention announced that “at some point, widespread transmission of COVID-19 in the United States will occur,” warning that “public health and healthcare systems may become overloaded, with elevated rates of hospitalizations and deaths,” and that emergency medical services, healthcare providers, and hospitals “may be overwhelmed.”

Recovering from a major illness or injury can be a slow and difficult process. But when patients are bed-bound, simply being in the hospital can add further complications. In the United States alone, 600,000 patients acquire healthcare-associated infections every year, resulting in nearly 100,000 preventable fatalities (Vaughn 2020).

The fact that immobility causes muscle stiffness and weakness is familiar to anyone who sits in a chair for too long, but can immobility actually cause permanent nerve damage? Recent studies reveal that immobility during hospital stays can cause damage to the peripheral nervous system, increase the likelihood and severity of delirium, and slow recovery for patients with neurological problems.

One critical factor in determining a patient’s capacity for early mobility is their mental state, which nurses judge on a case-by-case basis. But it turns out that early mobility can actually stimulate patients’ mental well-being and improve their emotional well-being, which immediately improves the patients’ quality of life, while reducing the serious risk of delirium and decreasing overall recovery time.

As far back as 1949, Dr. D.J. Leithauser wrote that: Ten years ago early ambulation was considered a “crackpot” idea. Today it is recognized and is rapidly approaching a “must” procedure following surgical operation. Seventy years later, Doctors, nurses, and administrators all agree that early patient mobility has tremendously beneficial outcomes.

Most medical practitioners are keenly aware of the benefits of early mobility—it improves patient recovery times, lowers the risk of complications, and shortens overall length of stay. So why has it been so difficult to implement? The most common barriers to patient mobility can be grouped in four categories: equipment, patient availability, staff availability, and unit planning.

Mobility is a key factor which advances healing during any hospitalization. In fact, the lack of mobility creates many problems that have for far too long been ignored by medical facilities.

What Customers Say

Testimonials

“6 months ago we implemented 12 mobis into our early mobility program. We have a very diverse population on our ICU and having the option of mobilizing them in a way that is helpful and assistive to staff while instilling confidence in the patient and family is great. We’re still working to figure out our ideal workflow but it’s given us concrete examples of how even our sicker vented patients can get mobilized safely and efficiently.”

Mark Rohlfing
RN, BSN Clinical Operations Manager Intensive Care Unit
Indiana University Health Ball Memorial Hospital - Muncie, IN

“After completing a research study with the LIVENGOOD mobi on our post trauma/surgical floor, I realized its potential to decrease length of stay, help with staff efficiency and empower patients to be independent.”

Lorrie Henecke
MS, APRN, ACNS-BC, CNRN Clinical Nurse Specialist
Medical Center of the Rockies, Loveland, CO

“We are so excited that the mobi helped us ambulate our very first vented patient.”

Esther Vandermeulen
R.N.
University Health System - San Antonio, TX

“The LIVENGOOD mobi is very user friendly, safe and a great solution to use minimal staff and be able to contain all of the patient’s equipment.”

Michael Saccone
P.T.
Saint Joseph's Hospital - Syracuse, NY

“I think the LIVENGOOD mobi will revolutionize the way we mobilize patients in the ICU. I saw patients mobilize sooner and with less anxiety with the mobi. One young patient was even able to walk outside with the mobi and her portable vent. Having the mobi made mobility a real team effort, not just a P.T. activity.”

Terra Terwilliger
PT, DPT - Adult Inpatient Physical Therapist
Rehab Services University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview Health System

“The LIVENGOOD platform allows my patients to be active and independent without attention being diverted to multiple lines, an oxygen tank, and other medically necessary devices. It allows patients to have hope and a sense of “normalcy”, which so often is lost after trauma or surgery.”

Jessica Gilbert
DPT
Staff Physical Therapist - Medical Center of The Rockies -Loveland, CO

“Six years ago I was introduced to the LIVENGOOD mobi. This piece of equipment has been life changing for my patients. I am now able to consolidate all of the patient’s medical devices onto an easy to push mobile platform, therefore freeing up both of my hands to safely assist my patient.”

Tanya Kensley
P.T.
Poudre Valley Hospital -Fort Collins, CO

“Mobility is Life, the mobi platform will help patients move again.”

Blas Villa
CCRN
University Health System - San Antonio, TX

“I was at NTI in Boston (2013) and, during the exhibit portion, I wandered across the LIVENGOOD booth. At that moment, I knew our hospital needed this mobi for our open heart recovery program. I worked with a Clinical Nurse Specialist to write a grant for this product. I am so excited to bring the mobi to our program.”

Celina Adams
RN, MSN, CCRN (CVICU)
John C. Lincoln - Phoenix, AZ

“We walked a vented patient with the mobi and it was awesome! This helped her physically and emotionally.”

Natalie Hariel
R.N.
Tulane Medical Center - New Orleans, LA

“I am a nurse in a cardiovascular ICU… Our goal for patients is to ambulate to the chair 2 hours after extubation, often the evening of surgery day. Our patients are up and walking with central venous catheters, swan ganz catheters, chest tubes, foley catheters, and with IV medications infusing. The ambulation of these patients would not be possible without the mobi walker. Every bit of equipment that these patients need can be carried on the walker while providing the stability of a standard walker… It is an essential piece of equipment for us and we couldn’t provide the care and therapies we do without it.”

Katherine Whitfield
RN CCRN
Athens Regional Medical Center - Athens, GA

Contact Us Now to Talk to a

Mobi Ambulation Specialist

Call Us
+1 (970) 797-4938
Locate Us
1001-A East Harmony Rd.
#502
Fort Collins, Co 80525
United States
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mobi Patient Mobility

sales@livengoodmed.com