OSHA: Keep updating your sharps safety devices
32 hospitals receive sharps-related citations in 2007
Don't get too comfortable with your current safety sharps. Failing to keep up with new technology could make you vulnerable to a citation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Last year, 32 hospitals received citations for violating the Bloodborne Pathogens standard. Many of them had multiple violations, which included failing to use safety devices that are available, and failing to update the annual exposure control plan.
OSHA requires hospitals to consider new technologies every year as the exposure control plan is updated.
"We do find that some facilities tend to use the same devices they are accustomed to using for a long time," says James Johnston, MS, CIH, assistant regional administrator in OSHA's Philadelphia office, which has a Special Emphasis Program on Bloodborne Pathogens. "Sometimes they run into problems with physicians who have been trained to use certain devices and are reluctant to try another device that might be safer," he says.
In fact, devices have changed substantially since the "first-generation" products, says Ron Stoker, MS, executive director of the International Sharps Injury Prevention Society (ISIPS) based in South Jordan, UT. For example, early safety scalpels were lightweight, and some surgeons felt they uncomfortable with their feel. Newer safety scalpels are weighted and have a similar feel to the conventional version, he notes.
There are new safety products every month, Stoker says. Of course, hospitals don't need to evaluate all of them but they should review different categories of safety devices and look into new products. For example, hospitals could invite vendors to an annual safety fair and ask them to bring new products that can be evaluated by staff.
"Most of us don't like change. Most of us like to have the things we're used to," he says. "But life changes, and we need to ... make new decisions."
Hospitals should seek the most "passive" devices those that don't need to be activated by the health care worker. Or even better, they should eliminate sharps whenever possible. For example, wound closure adhesives such as Steri-Strips (a 3M product, solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/SH/SkinHealth/brands/steri-strip/) or Dermabond (an Ethicon product, www.dermabond.com) eliminate the need for suturing.
If you can't avoid suturing, consider products that reduce needlesticks, suggests Stoker: SuturTek Inc. (www.suturtek.com) provides devices that have a mini-sewing mechanism for sterna and fascia closure. DigiCap (produced by Vienex USA of Reno, NV; www.digicap.net) offers a thimble-like device to protect the surgeon's fingers during suturing.
ISIPS maintains a list of sharps safety products on its web site (www.isips.org) and Stoker is co-author of the Compendium of Infection Control Technologies (Biomedical Safety Publishing, $489.95).
Switching to a new device may not be easy. Frontline workers must be involved in the evaluation of new technologies. Implementing a new device will require extensive training of employees.
But keeping up with change in sharps safety is just as important as other advances in health care, says Stoker. In fact, technological change is a part of life.
"I had a '66 Barracuda. I loved that car. But you know what? Baby, we've come a long way since then," he says. "Don't just settle for your '66 Barracuda. Keep looking to the future at the new products coming in. You might find one you like a lot more and you'll be in compliance [with OSHA]."
Don't get too comfortable with your current safety sharps. Failing to keep up with new technology could make you vulnerable to a citation by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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