Nisha Jacob Savanhu, MD, MBA
Healthcare organizations invest significant time and resources in improving the movement of patients throughout the continuum of care. Safe patient handling programs, infection-prevention practices, ergonomic initiatives, equipment evaluations, and capital-planning decisions are routinely considered in clinical environments.
One transport workflow, however, receives comparatively little attention: the movement of an individual after death.
Postmortem transport may involve nursing units, transport teams, pathology, morgue personnel, environmental services, security, facilities staff, and external funeral-service partners. Although the clinical episode has ended, the operational responsibilities of the healthcare organization have not.
That makes postmortem transport more than a morgue issue. It is a workflow, workforce-safety, equipment-readiness, infection-control, and dignity issue.
A Workflow That Deserves Its Own Evaluation
Transporting a deceased individual presents requirements that differ from routine patient movement. Staff may need to navigate patient rooms, corridors, elevators, restricted areas, pathology departments, loading areas, and morgue spaces while maintaining privacy and following established institutional procedures.
Equipment used in this environment therefore should be evaluated within the complete workflow rather than by a single specification such as weight capacity. The more useful question is not simply whether a stretcher can carry the load, but whether the entire transport process can be performed safely, consistently, and respectfully in the facility where the equipment will actually be used.
Questions for healthcare leaders include:
- How many staff members are typically required for transport?
- Where do transfers occur, and what physical effort is required to complete them?
- Can the equipment navigate the elevators, corridors, thresholds, storage areas, and other spaces in which it will actually be used?
- Can surfaces and components be cleaned and disinfected according to facility protocols and manufacturer instructions?
- Does the organization have appropriate capacity for the range of individuals it may need to transport?
- How are privacy, security, and dignity maintained throughout the process?
Designing Around the People Performing the Work
Healthcare equipment is often evaluated by what it does for the person being transported. Equipment evaluation should also consider what it requires from the employee operating it.
NIOSH identifies manual patient handling and lifting as causes of work-related musculoskeletal disorders among healthcare workers, while OSHA identifies musculoskeletal disorders as a major source of healthcare-worker injury. NIOSH research has also identified excessive forces during pushing and pulling, awkward postures, and manual handling as relevant ergonomic risk factors in healthcare.¹–³
Those sources address patient handling broadly rather than routine postmortem transport specifically. Even so, the ergonomic principle is directly relevant to equipment-selection questions involving pushing, pulling, maneuvering, transferring, and positioning. Postmortem transport therefore deserves consideration within the broader conversation about staff ergonomics and safe handling rather than being treated as an isolated equipment purchase.
Capacity Readiness Without Overstating the Trend
Facilities also need equipment that can accommodate a wide range of body sizes and weights. Current national data underscore the importance of capacity readiness: CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reported that 40.3% of U.S. adults had obesity and 9.4% had severe obesity during August 2021–August 2023. The same report found that overall adult obesity prevalence did not significantly increase over the preceding decade, although severe obesity did increase.⁴
For equipment planning, that distinction matters. The issue is not simply that every facility should assume patients are becoming progressively heavier. The more defensible operational question is whether the organization has access to transport equipment that can safely accommodate the range of individuals it serves without creating avoidable workflow disruptions or staff-handling challenges.
Capacity alone does not determine whether a transport system will function effectively. Frame stability, maneuverability, caster performance, equipment dimensions, cleanability, durability, storage requirements, and the physical environment in which the stretcher will operate all influence real-world usability.
Cleaning, Disinfection, and Equipment Design
Postmortem transport equipment is also part of the healthcare environment and should support the facility’s established cleaning and disinfection practices. CDC guidance for healthcare environmental cleaning addresses routine cleaning and disinfection of environmental surfaces and noncritical equipment and emphasizes following appropriate procedures and manufacturer instructions.⁵
That makes design details such as smooth surfaces, accessible components, material compatibility, and the absence of unnecessarily difficult-to-clean areas more than convenience features. They can affect how reliably staff are able to carry out established environmental hygiene processes.
Infection-control requirements can vary based on the clinical circumstances surrounding a death. Disease-specific CDC guidance demonstrates that certain postmortem situations may require additional PPE, containment, or decontamination measures.⁶ Equipment selection does not replace those protocols, but it should not make compliance with them more difficult.
Dignity Remains Part of Care
Postmortem care also carries a responsibility that cannot be reduced to workflow efficiency. Families may never see the transport process, but the healthcare professionals performing it understand its significance.
Guidance on management of the deceased in humanitarian and infectious-disease contexts consistently emphasizes respectful and dignified handling of human remains.⁷ Although those sources are not routine hospital transport standards, the underlying principle is applicable: safe processes should preserve respect for the deceased and for their families.
Purpose-built equipment cannot create dignity by itself. It can, however, support controlled movement, privacy, secure handling, and consistent professional practice.
From Product Specification to Workflow Fit
A useful equipment evaluation should therefore move beyond a checklist of product specifications. The selection process should connect the equipment to the actual path of travel, staffing model, transfer points, cleaning process, storage environment, and capacity needs of the facility.
For manufacturers, this creates an opportunity to support customers with a range of solutions rather than assuming a single configuration fits every organization. The goal is not simply to supply a morgue stretcher. It is to help the facility identify the transport solution that best fits the workflow around the last transfer.
Examples of current Graham-Field transport options
The following examples illustrate how available capacities can support different facility requirements.
| Product | Capacity | Planning Role |
| Hausted 462EMCST | 500 lb | Standard-capacity postmortem transport option* |
| Hausted 462FMCST | 800 lb | Higher-capacity postmortem transport option* |
| Gendron G1190 | 1,000 lb | Heavy-duty/bariatric transport capacity |
| Gendron G1050 | 350 lb | General-duty transport capacity |
An Overlooked Part of Operational Readiness
Postmortem transport may represent a relatively small portion of a hospital’s equipment inventory, but that does not make the workflow insignificant.
Organizations evaluating staff safety, ergonomics, infection-prevention practices, capacity readiness, transport efficiency, and capital equipment should consider whether postmortem transport has been included in those same conversations.
The larger opportunity is not simply to purchase a morgue stretcher. It is to examine an often-overlooked hospital workflow and ask whether the people, equipment, environment, and processes surrounding the last transfer have been designed to work together.
Healthcare Teams evaluating postmortem transport workflows do not have to navigate these decisions alone. Graham-Field can help facilities review transport needs, capacity requirements, workflow considerations, and available equipment options.
Have questions about transport or which solution may best fit your facility? Contact Hausted to be connected with a sales representative who can help review your needs.
References
- National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). About Safe Patient Handling and Mobility. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. May 9, 2024.
- Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA). Healthcare – Safe Patient Handling.
- Caruso CC, Collins JW, Galinsky T, Waters TR. NIOSH Research Efforts to Prevent Musculoskeletal Disorders in the Healthcare Industry. Orthopaedic Nursing. 2006;25(6).
- Emmerich SD, Fryar CD, Stierman B, Ogden CL. Obesity and Severe Obesity Prevalence in Adults: United States, August 2021-August 2023. NCHS Data Brief, No. 508. National Center for Health Statistics; 2024.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Environmental Cleaning Procedures: Healthcare-Associated Infections. March 19, 2024; and Core Infection Prevention and Control Practices for Safe Healthcare Delivery in All Settings. April 12, 2024.
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Safe Handling of Human Remains of Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Patients in U.S. Hospitals and Mortuaries. May 7, 2024.
- International Committee of the Red Cross. Guiding Principles for Dignified Management of the Dead in Humanitarian Emergencies and to Prevent Them Becoming Missing Persons. 2021.