The lift team's importance to a successful safe patient handling program.

Nurses continue to experience injuries related to patient handling. These injuries are costly to hospitals in both direct and indirect costs and intangible costs such as staff morale. The need for hospitals to establish safe patient handling programs is growing and is now mandated by legislation in several states. The authors describe the development, implementation, and 6-year outcomes of a lift team that is part of successful safe patient handling program.