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Transfers and lifts

Equipment for moving someone between a bed, a chair, a commode, or a car. Which one is right depends on how much weight the person can take through their legs, so the guides are ordered by that, not by price.

Transfers and lifts: 16 items

How to choose transfer equipment

The question is not which device is best. It is how much weight the person can still take through their legs today, and how fast that is changing. Equipment matched to the wrong stage is where injuries happen, to them and to you.

Match the equipment to weight bearing

• Still walks with help. A gait belt gives you something to hold. It steadies and guides. It never lifts body weight, and it is not a handle for hauling someone upright.
• Takes some weight and can grip. A sit-to-stand aid or a pivot disc turns a stand into a controlled turn, as long as they can hold on and their feet stay planted.
• Cannot take weight, but has arm strength and trunk control. A transfer board bridges the gap between two surfaces so nobody is lifted clear of them.
• Cannot take weight reliably. A patient lift. At this point the equipment does the lifting, not you, and that is the correct answer rather than a defeat.

Two things people get wrong when buying a patient lift

Floor clearance decides whether a floor lift works at all. The legs of the base have to pass under the bed. A platform bed or a solid frame skirt stops it, and no amount of sling adjustment fixes that. Measure before you order.

The sling matters as much as the lift. Lifts usually ship with one sling, often the wrong size, and slings are not freely interchangeable between brands. Size it for the person rather than accepting whatever came in the box.

We cover this in detail in sling types and sizing, choosing a lift for home use, and ceiling lift versus floor lift.

A bed rail is not a fall device

A bed rail helps someone who can still use their arms to turn, sit up, or steady themselves on the way out of bed. Once they cannot do that, the rail stops being an aid and becomes something to get caught in. Ask the therapist first, and ask again as arm strength changes.

Working height is the thing you control

Most caregiver back injuries are not one dramatic lift. They accumulate from many transfers done at the wrong height with the person too far away. Raise the bed toward your hip, get close before you start, and move your feet instead of twisting. See body mechanics and back injury prevention.

What this equipment costs, and who pays

Medicare Part B covers medically necessary durable medical equipment when a provider prescribes it for use at home. After the Part B deductible you pay 20 percent of the Medicare approved amount. Hospital beds, commode chairs, walkers, wheelchairs and scooters are all on Medicare’s own list.

Whether one specific item qualifies is decided case by case, so ask the clinic’s social worker before paying out of pocket. Check that the supplier is enrolled in Medicare and accepts assignment, and ask whether the item is rented or bought, because that differs by equipment type.

Our guides to free and low-cost equipment programs and financial resources cover the routes that are not Medicare, including loan closets and nonprofit grants.

Coverage details from Medicare on durable medical equipment.

Buying this equipment

Where an item above is stocked by a medical supplier rather than a general retailer, we link both. For lifts and slings that difference matters, because sizing and weight ratings are not optional and a general listing often will not tell you either.

Before ordering a lift, measure the clearance under the bed. Before ordering a sling, check the cradle type on the lift you already have. Neither is returnable once used.

Step by step guides for these transfers

Buying the equipment is the easy half. These walk through the technique.

• All nine transfer techniques, grouped by how much weight the person can bear
• Using a gait belt safely
• Using a slide board
• Operating a Hoyer lift
• Moving someone up in bed with a slide sheet
• What to do when someone falls
• Wheelchair to car transfers