The new AI powered ALTA platform helps transfer patients smoothly and comfortably. The device also reduces the risk of workplace injuries by minimizing the physical strain involved in patient handling.
Photo: Alta Platform demonstration at Mission Memorial Hospital.
Thanks to funding from Mission Health Care Auxiliary, Mission Memorial Hospital now has an ALTA platform—a robotic patient transfer device that utilizes artificial intelligence to help move patients from bed to stretcher without lifting or pulling, making transfers smoother and more comfortable for patients and safer for care teams.
“Imagine you have an elderly or injured patient laying on their back who needs to be moved from a stretcher to an x-ray table and then into a bed,” says Dr. Andrew Edelson, former site medical director at Mission Memorial Hospital. “You need up to four attendants to move the patient. With ALTA, the movement requires fewer staff and the patient is transferred smoothly, with less jostling.”
According to Worksafe BC, patient handling is the top cause of injury among health care workers, with those who transfer or reposition patients most at risk. Musculoskeletal injuries, including sprains and strains, are the most common types of injuries.
Alice Campbell, president of Mission Health Care Auxiliary, says they were able to fund the equipment from money raised at The Cottage Thrift Store and hospital gift shop, both run by Auxiliary volunteers.
"It is important for the public to know how the items they donate to The Cottage Thrift Store end up benefitting the community,” she says.
