What is Coefficient of Friction & Why Does it Matter?

“We save nurses 2lb of force acting on their body, per 50lb of patient weight”

What is Coefficient of Friction?

If you were to walk the halls of Authority Medical Group, you would undoubtedly hear the phrase coefficient of friction. A simple phrase that catches the tongue, but what does it mean?

In essence, the coefficient of friction is a measure of the "force necessary to move one surface horizontally over another."

To put simply: it is a measure of how slippery our Slide Tube is (slicker than ice on ice).

How Does The Slide Tube Compare?

Here at Authority Medial Group, we knew our Slide Tube had a low coefficient of friction, but we wanted to know how we compared to the competition.

Evidently, multiple hospitals had the same thought. To the left, you will find the results from an unbiased hospital experiment testing friction-reducing devices with a 50lb patient dummy. Looking at the graph, you can see that the Authority Medical Group Slide Tube required the least amount of force and had the lowest coefficient of friction.

When moving the 50lb dummy our Slide Tube required approximately 2lb less than our nearest competitor. Meaning, we save nurses and medical staff 2lb of force acting on their body per 50lb of patient weight.

Why Does It Matter?

Boosting, rotating, or transferring a patient from bed to bed is associated with high rates of low back injuries. Thus, it is important to use a friction-reducing device with the lowest coefficient of friction.

The Authority Medical Group Slide Tube is a friction-reducing device, that when paired with proper ergonomics, has shown to reduce back and shoulder injuries amongst medical professionals by at least 45%.