Liko North America has announced the launch of a new "Toolkit" section of its Safe Lifting Portal Web site. The new portal section is designed to assist hospitals and nursing homes with the start-up, development, and on-going support of safe lifting initiatives. The Liko-sponsored Safe Lifting Portal is a pro bono injury prevention site designed to help nurses avoid musculoskeletal injuries caused by lifting and repositioning patients.

The Safe Lifting Portal cover topics such as how to start and deploy a program, how to achieve caregiver buy-in, tracking legislative activities, and calculating projected savings using an interactive return-on-investment calculator. It also includes a monthly electronic newsletter and a question-and-answer column called "Ask the Lift Doctor."

According to Melissa Nowitz, administrator of the Safe Lifting Portal, "Over the course of the three or more years of our portal's existence, many customers have contacted us and asked for individual items to promote safe lifting in their facilities -- ranging from posters to pamphlets -- and this new section allows us to make them available in one convenient location. Also, we are always looking for additional suggestions on how to improve the efficacy of safe lifting programs, and now we have a more direct means of sharing those ideas among healthcare workers and safe lifting committee members."

To access the Toolkit section of Safe Lifting Portal, visit http://www.safeliftingportal.com/toolkit.