Hospital and nursing home employees have some very difficult duties to perform on a daily basis. Linen, laundry and food carts are very easy to push for a single person when they are empty, but start piling on trays full of food or dozens and dozens of sets of bedding and soiled clothing and these carts and get pretty heavy. A fully loaded cart could easily top out at around a thousand pounds, and for a lone employee that can be quite a bit of weight to bear.The main problem for making these jobs easier lies in the fact that many hospitals, rehab centers and nursing homes have small rooms, narrow hallways and tight quarters in which to operate in general – so trying to move a big and bulky piece of machinery to help you with your duties would be all but impossible.Thankfully, the Electric Tugger from DJ Products is designed specifically for operation in the narrowest of hallways and tightest of quarters so employees can handle these carts at their heaviest without the fear of strain. The Electric Tugger is also ergonomically designed to keep overuse injuries at a minimum and to cut down on potential sick days and workman’s compensation claims.An Electric Tugger can also dramatically increase the speed at which hospital and nursing home employees perform these duties. Patients and residents can receive their food and have their rooms cleaned faster and this means that rooms and hallways will be clear of clutter for more of the day. Clear rooms and hallways are a necessity in these types of facilities to ensure that emergency personnel have the room to operate if necessary.An Electric Tugger cuts down on the chance of over exertion and lets any employee move fully loaded carts quickly, easily and helps to keep residents safe by allowing the staff to keep rooms and hallways clear. These jobs have been done without the help of equipment for years, but now that there is an Electric Tugger that can help get the job done more safely and efficiently, more and more facilities are attacking these necessary duties the smart way rather than the hard way.
Category: Hotel And Hospitality Supply Movement
Lightening the Load for Hospital Employees with a Power Puller
The work environment inside of a hospital can be outrageously hectic, but there is often no time to spare in figuring out how to properly handle a seemingly difficult situation. Rooms need to be cleaned and prepared for incoming patients, food needs to be delivered on time and patients need to be moved to appropriate areas for the treatment they need regardless of how crowded, cramped or full the hallways and rooms may be. This presents a unique work situation that requires the right type of equipment for employees to be able to complete all of their required duties in a timely manner.
A power puller is a perfect solution for handling the tight quarters and face paced environment that is faced on a daily basis inside of a hospital. The power puller from DJ Products is the smallest and most maneuverable tug on the market, but it is powerful enough to handle even the biggest jobs with ease.
Hospital employees can use the power puller from DJ Products to move heavy and fully loaded food and linen carts through narrow, crowded hallways and tight rooms so that patients can be kept as comfortable as possible during their stay and so that other members of hospital staff can go about their necessary duties without having to wait for extended periods of time behind a slow moving cart. The power puller can also be used to help a single employee easily maneuver a hospital bed for transport or cleaning purposes.
As with each piece of equipment offered by DJ Products, the power puller is ergonomically designed to make tasks that can often lead to injuries as safe as possible for employees, regardless of physical strength and the power puller runs on a powerful battery that can easily last for an entire eight hour shift on a single charge. Working in a hospital can be strenuous and stressful, but providing employees with equipment like the power puller from DJ Products will help them to get the job done as safely and efficiently as possible.
Hospitals and Hospitality Services Get Help from an Electric Cart Pusher
The environment inside of a hospital, nursing home or hotel can be hectic –different scenarios present a wide variety of challenges for employees, making daily duties much more difficult to complete. Emergencies at hospitals or nursing homes require rooms and hallways to be quickly cleared in order for personnel to act and holiday weekends or special events can completely changed how employees in the hospitality industry have to perform in order to satisfy customers.
In order to increase efficiency and make the environment in a crowded hotel or hospital as safe for employees as possible, it’s important that the staff have the proper equipment to handle their duties. Food and linen carts can be exceedingly heavy and difficult to maneuver down narrow hallways manually, but with the help of an electric cart pusher the job can be performed much faster and much more efficiently.
An electric cart pusher from DJ Products is designed to attach easily to just about any four wheeled cart with two front swivel casters and two straight casters. Once attached to the swivel caster end, the electric cart pusher makes for quick and easy maneuvering in and out of small rooms and down narrow halls and corridors.
An electric cart pusher helps to make employees safer by eliminating the stress and strain associated with manual cart pushing. Alleviating the stress and strain on your employees minimizes sick days; workers compensation claims and keeps you entire operation running more smoothly. Using an electric cart pusher can also help to keep guests or residents as safe as possible by minimizing the time that rooms and hallways are either partially blocked or completely inaccessible by slow moving, manually pulled linen or food carts.
Increase Productivity with Motorized Retrofit Cart Kits
This time of year is particularly busy for the hospitality industry. More families are traveling to see relatives during the holidays, which means quite a few more guests in most hotels.
Increased volume of guests results in a more demanding workload for cleaning crews. This can cause employee fatigue and lead to either diminished work performance or possibly injury if the proper equipment isn’t available for employees to use.
Hotels that already have an arsenal of manually operated linen and cleaning carts may not be too eager to take on the investment of replacing them all for motorized carts. By purchasing motorized retrofit cart kits these hotels can lighten the workload on their employees and dramatically increase efficiency without a large burden of cost.
Motorized retrofit cart kits can be installed on just about any manual cart to immediately make it more powerful and easier for employees to use. The long lasting batteries can keep your linen or cleaning carts running steady for an entire eight hour shift without needing to be recharged. This means that your employees won’t be forced to face unnecessary interruptions at crucial points during their shift and that rooms will be cleaned and ready for new arrivals.
The motorized retrofit cart kit provides enough power to easily maneuver fully loaded carts weighing up to four thousand pounds across just about any surface. Your employees will have no problem travelling with a loaded cart on carpets, concrete or tile at speeds of up to about three miles per hour. A motorized retrofit cart kit gives you the opportunity to immediately make the workplace safer for your employees and increase efficiency, without a large investment.
Getting the Job Done
A study from commercial insurer CNA that examined the risks associated with working in the food processing industry found that “the types of incidents most likely to cause worker injuries are manual material handling and physical stress; struck by and struck against; and falls on the same level.” The report also noted that while the industry has increased its use of power movers, there was still a reliance on manual transport that lead to injuries that may have been prevented.
As the reports also states, “Profitability in the food processing industry depends on the rapid production of final product and its timely shipment to customers. The continuous rapid movement of large amounts of raw materials and finished products throughout the production cycle exposes workers to injuries resulting from contact with moving objects.”
We know that you cannot afford to slow down operations. We also know that you would like to avoid costly worker compensations claims and the loss of productivity and morale that go along with those claims. So, try using a DJ Products powered mover, like the CartCaddyShorty for example.
The CartCaddyShorty can be used to transport a variety of heavy loads, including things like large quantities of cold cuts or a cart full of cookie dough. This small, but powerful tugger is one the most maneuverable tugs you’ll find today.
While you can continue to allow your employees to push heavy carts because they are ‘getting the job done,’ consider that ergonomically designed equipment will still help them complete their tasks with the added benefit of preventing strains and sprains that can harm your staff and your financial outlook.
Should You Consider Drug Testing Your Hotel Staff?
Some studies have shown that the hospitality sector has higher rates of drug and alcohol abuse than other industries. In terms of productivity, accident prevention, and pleasing your customers, it makes sense for hotels to implement a drug testing policy — as part of the hiring process or on an ongoing basis.
We keep an eye out for great warehouse management tips, and it’s clear that drug testing helps prevent many workplace accidents and ensure a healthy and reliable workforce. This thinking holds doubly true for the hotel industry for several reasons:
- Many workers routinely handle large, heavy, and expensive items
- Management cannot always keep an eye on staff in all parts of the building
- Customers expect helpful, energetic, and reliable service
Drug testing policies can be tricky to implement because you need to comply with all federal, state, and local laws. Additionally, current employees may be hesitant to accept a new testing policy.
However, drug testing brings great value to hotel operations by reducing your risk for injuries and lawsuits. And on a daily basis, you can be confident that your staff is more likely to show up for work ready to perform well.
Good employee drug testing programs can protect your company and boost your profitability by emphasizing a healthy workforce.
When we talk about warehouse management tips, we often talk about using productivity boosters like our motorized carts. Much the same, hotels can use our Hospitality Cart Puller to reduce the risk of injury and make work easier and more productive.
For more hospitality and warehouse management tips, follow our blog at DJ Products, Inc.
The High Cost of Employee Turnover for Hospitals and Hotels
In recent years, turnover has increased in the hotel and hospitality industries. Employees often leave due to boredom, repetitive tasks, and feeling overworked. Let’s consider the costs and intangibles associated with turnover, and take a look at some hospital and hotel warehouse management tips for boosting retention and employee performance.
Employee Turnover: Direct and Indirect Costs Add Up
Replacing any worker requires a significant investment — interviewing, on-boarding, training, and a great deal of lost productivity. Consider how your company loses time and money replacing an employee:
- Picking up the slack: Productivity suffers as tasks go undone, coworkers struggle to fill in the gaps, and the new hire begins a learning curve.
- Training: In addition to formal training sessions, new employees will require hours of precious time from management and coworkers. Someone will need to walk the new hire around campus and stop to answer their questions for weeks or months.
- Continuity: The old employee may have been performing important but undocumented tasks, so you may notice a drop-off in team performance as everyone scrambles to move forward without them.
- Workplace culture: Turnover can breed a domino effect. Other employees may grow unhappy with changes and increased workloads. Ultimately, turnover lowers morale and makes it difficult to maintain consistent performance.
Hotels and hospitals can minimize turnover by empowering workers. Communicate and engage, offer routes to raises and promotions, and prevent employees from wearing out due to repetitive tasks. Our Hospitality Cart Puller helps reduce the physical strain on workers — and that leads to greater job satisfaction.
Follow our blog at DJ Products, Inc. for more hospitality and hotel warehouse management tips.