Sharp advice: Lock out vendors, let in leaders
NIOSH publishes device team lessons learned’
Make sure you have senior leadership support for your sharps evaluation effort. Keep meetings on time and on task. Consider involving physicians as ad hoc members; they might not show up on a regular basis.
Those are a few of the lessons learned that hospitals have shared on a new web site from the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). NIOSH asked hospitals, nursing homes, home health agencies, and dental facilities in four major cities to share their experiences in selecting and implementing safer sharps devices. All identifying features have been removed so the hospitals can’t be identified.
The hospitals provided a detailed, honest portrayal of the successes and challenges in creating evaluation teams and selecting devices. They revealed how many staff hours were spent on each phase. They also discussed criteria for selection of devices. One hospital described how much participation was received from representatives of various departments. "Nonmanagerial staff participation was strongly encouraged. The response was not overwhelming."
Here are some excerpts from the advice by the three hospitals currently profiled:
• Beware of vendors!. "Vendors can take up large amounts of meeting time," said one hospital. "Suggest that vendors meet with one or two team members to demonstrate product. Have vendors provide enough samples for those team members to demonstrate at team meetings. Insist that vendors only work through the team leader or designee."
Another hospital noted, "Vendors may exaggerate product availability and their ability to provide adequate inservice education. For example, our team reviewed a promising product and selected it for evaluation. We then discovered that the product was a prototype still pending [Food and Drug Administration] approval."
• Gain support from top hospital leaders. "Without significant understanding and support from top key people, the team cannot function," one hospital said. For example, the team selects a device that isn’t on the group-purchasing contract. The team may then need specific authorization from top administrators. Top leaders involved in the process can communicate the progress to other managers. But if you don’t have involvement with top leadership, one hospital suggested how to improve your effectiveness.
"Facilitating the sharps team from within has worked for our organization because of the staff/ management structure in place and past organizational success with the performance improvement team process. If there are no champions in a level of authority to facilitate this process, then use of a consultant may work best to begin the road to sharps safety. Each organization must assess [its] strengths and limitations when embarking on an extensive project such as this one."
• Strong team leadership is essential. Strong team leaders communicate effectively, keep members on task, and understand hospital dynamics. "[The] team leader must be able to influence others to quickly achieve team goals," commented one hospital. "The team leader should have either significant staff authority or functional authority vested in the position by administration."
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