Mobility Atlas research: patient-lift-guide
Data and method for the article at mobilitatlas.com/blog/patient-lift-guide/
License: CC BY 4.0 (credit "Mobility Atlas")
Prepared: 16 October 2026

WHAT WAS READ
Every FDA MAUDE medical device report filed under product code FSA (Lift, Patient, Non-AC-Powered; 21 CFR 880.5510) or FNG (Lift, Patient, AC-Powered; 21 CFR 880.5500) received from 1 January 2025 to the end of August 2026 (the latest data in openFDA, read on 11 October 2026): 1,909 reports, 957 with text, all coded. 2 describe no lift event (coded N), leaving 955.
All 164 FDA recall records for product codes FSA and FNG, downloaded through openFDA on 15 October 2026 (recall_facts.py).
Makers: grouped from the manufacturer and brand names in each report (Arjo, Medline, Baxter/Liko, Hoyer brand, Drive, other). Reports using "Hoyer" as a general word for a lift are counted under the Hoyer brand.

HOW IT WAS CODED
1. A codebook (codebook.txt) was written before any report was coded. Its SHA-256 fingerprint, recorded at 2026-10-15T17:51:12Z, is 9e70db72d2f92ac918750372d1c78526218af9759ab742a10cec3f832c5e0a5f. Any later change to the codebook would change this fingerprint.
2. The reports were split into chunks. Two coders (AI language models working separately, each in a private scratch folder, each without access to the other's answers, told to read every report and not to use keyword scripts) coded every report in every chunk against the codebook.
3. Agreement between the two coders: device 99.5% (kappa 0.991); category 95.8% (kappa 0.949); injury 99.7% (kappa 0.993); fall 99.3% (kappa 0.983); setting 93.9% (kappa 0.877); what was found 96.2% (kappa 0.942).
4. Every report where the coders differed was decided by the lead analyst under the written rules below (142 reports marked adjudicated). A consistency pass then re-applied the rules across the whole table and changed codes in 4 more reports (marked consistency).
5. Counts in the article were produced by script from the final table, not by hand. Some sub-counts (parts, places or words named in reports) are keyword counts over the report text; the exact word patterns are listed under KEYWORD COUNTS. Different wording would give somewhat different counts.

ADJUDICATION RULES
L1: SETTING: C when the text names a care facility, residents, nurses, CNAs, staff, a hospital, a school, a public pool or biomedical or facility technicians; H when it names a home or a family carer; otherwise U.
L2: CATEGORY: when a lift part broke or gave out and the person was dropped or lowered (actuator, motor shaft, sprocket, spring rod, lift strap, a lift that would not hold, a stuck down button, flat battery), the category is D; when a part broke with no drop, M.
L3: CATEGORY: parts between the lift arm and the sling (spreader or carry bar, its latches, hooks and catches, scale adapter, cradle, quick-connect) are H; parts holding the lift to its track or base (carriage, reacher hook, end stopper, pivot bolt, frame screws) are M.
L4: CATEGORY: a sling used wrongly (wrong size, incompatible or non-approved, straps not used, misapplied, loops not attached) is G even when a latch on the bar also broke; a person slipping or sliding with no sling or device problem named is F.
L5: CATEGORY: a fall or slide during lift or bath-device use with no device failure (fainting, seat not folded down, brake not applied, staff guiding the person to the floor) is F; a serious injury alleged with no detail is X.
L6: CATEGORY: a wheel or caster that broke or fell off, or a portable track pole that detached and tipped, is T.
L7: CATEGORY: an actuator or motor that broke or stopped working with no drop is E; a device that is not a patient lift (a stair device) is N.
L8: FINDING: a fault caused by the maker's or dealer's technician (stopper left unsecured), damage found on delivery, or a part confirmed broken or replaced is D; use error, a non-approved sling, staff not checking, wrong plugging, abuse, or a device that passed its function test is N; no evaluation result stated is X.
L9: INJURY: pain, a bump or an emergency visit with no injury found is n.
L10: FALL: y when the person was dropped onto the floor, a bed or a chair; n when staff caught them or guided them to the floor, or the report does not say they fell.
L11: DEVICE: O when the report does not say what kind of lift; S for a stand aid; F for a floor lift named in the text.

KEYWORD COUNTS (Python regular expressions, matched against the upper-case report text without its header line)
KW = {
 'clip_or_loop': r'\bCLIPS?\b|\bLOOPS?\b',
 'emergency_stop_or_lowering': r'EMERGENCY (STOP|LOWER|RELEASE|DOWN)',
 'end_stopper': r'END STOP',
 'side_support': r'SIDE SUPPORT',
 'two_caregivers': r'(TWO|2) (CAREGIVERS|STAFF|NURSES|CNAS|PEOPLE)',
 'non_approved_sling': r'NON-?\s?(ARJO|LIKO|APPROVED|HOYER|COMPATIBLE)|NOT (AN? )?(ARJO|LIKO|APPROVED|COMPATIBLE)|INCOMPATIBLE|THIRD.PARTY',
 'wrong_size_sling': r'WRONG SIZE|INCORRECT SIZE|TOO (LARGE|BIG|SMALL)',
 'battery': r'BATTER',
 'inspection': r'INSPECT|PERIODIC|PREVENTIVE MAINTENANCE|SERVIC',
}
M_KW = {'caster_wheel': r'CASTER|WHEEL', 'mast_boom': r'MAST|BOOM', 'track_rail': r'TRACK|RAIL', 'strap_tape': r'STRAP|TAPE|BELT', 'bolt_screw': r'BOLT|SCREW|NUT\b|PIN\b'}

QUALITY NOTES (disclosed in full)
- The article went through fact-check passes by checkers who had not written it (a full pass with a reader review, then a control pass over the changes), each recomputing numbers from the files here and reading quotes against their sources; every error found was corrected before publication.

AMOUNTS
Every report text was searched for money figures (amount_candidates.csv logic in tools/amounts.py); one gives a purchase price (EUR 1,338.27 for a floor lift bought in Spain), not used in the article; the other figures are weights. Prices in the article are prices shown on makers', dealers' and retailers' pages and in the Mobility Atlas catalog, listed in patient-lift-guide-documents.csv and the article sources.

LIMITS
- Reports are not rates. Nobody publishes how many devices of each model are in use.
- A report is an allegation or a description; the FDA says the submission of a report "itself does not necessarily demonstrate that the device caused or contributed to the adverse outcome or event."
- Three makers file most of the reports, which reflects their size and filing, not their safety.
- 188 Medline reports received in July and August 2026 were filed as part of a retrospective review of older events; they inflate the 2026 count and the electrical group.
- The same event is often filed twice; we count reports, not events (41 death reports describe about 27 events).
- The setting is not stated in 560 reports; only 13 name a private home.

FILES
codebook.txt        the codebook as fingerprinted
coded_reports.csv   one row per coded report: both coders' answers, the final code, and how a disagreement was resolved (resolution, rule_applied)
report_pool.csv     the reports in the pool with product code, brand, date received and event type
The full report texts are public: search MAUDE or openFDA by report key.
patient-lift-guide-documents.csv  the documents and pages read, with links