Needlesticks

According to an article in the August 8th issue of the American Journal of Infection Control that was conducted by the Center for Healthcare Policy and Research and the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of California in Davis, CA, white female nurses between ages 35-44 are the most frequent demographic and occupational category for a needlestick.

The study examined Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data on needlestick injuries requiring one or more days of lost work time from 1992 to 2003.Women comprised 73.3% of persons injured by needlesticks in the BLS data.

NIOSH Fact Sheet

NIOSH has just published a new fact sheet that indicates bloodborne pathogen exposure control plans must be specirfic to your facility, updated yearly and accessible to all employees. Recently OSHA fined a physician office $2,000 for not making the exposure control plan available to all its employees.

Hepatitis B Vaccination Titer

The OSHA bloodborne pathogen standard requires that all facilities who have employees exposed to bloodborne pathogens offer Hepatitis B vaccination at no cost to the employee. In addition, OSHA follows the current U.S. Public Health Service guidelines which call for testing one to two months after completion of the three-dose series to make sure the titer is appropriate.

Chairs

Herman Miller, maker of the ergonomically correct Aeron office chair is now producing a line of ergonomically correct patient-oriented chairs for the clinical market. The company based its new chair on the aeron design that let it tilt easily and can help patients sit up with ease. Designers and engineers visited patient rooms in nine hospitals and met with nearly 200 nurses and doctors to make sure the product would do the job. Nurses and physicians advised on several crucial details such as making sure an IV line wouldn't catch on the chair's arms and the need to find antimicrobial upholstery that could be cleaned if blood or body fluids got trapped in the seams. The chair is visually pleasing and comes with a footstool for more comfort. It debuted June 9th at Chicago's NeoCon World Trade Fair and will go on sale to hospitals in the fall for a list price of $1,800.

Bloodborne Pathogen Costs

According to the July 2007 issue of Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology, the costs of an exposure to a bloodborne pathogen ranged from a low of $71 to a high of $4,838 per incident depending on the circumstances. Calculations included time spent reporting, managing and following up the exposures, salaries, laboratory testing, and postexposure prophylaxis. The mean cost of exposures was $2,456 from HIV infected sources, $376 from unknown or HIV-negative infected sources, and $650 from hepatitis C infected sources.

And while we are talking about costs, did you know there is a fine associated with failure to review and update your bloodborne pathogex exposure control plan? According to Medical Enviornment Update published on June 17, 2008 by HCPro, failure to review the exposure control plan at least annually and whenever necessary to reflect new hazards, work practices, and engineering controls is one of the most frequent fines cited by OSHA for physician practices. Initial fines have averaged $590 per citation.

New Latex Glove

The FDA has approved a new patient examination glove made from guayule latex, a new form of natural rubber latex. The glove is made by the Yulex Corporation of Maricopa, AZ, and has shown that even patients who are highly allergic to traditional latex do not react on first exposure to guayule latex proteins. Until further study is conducted, the Yulex glove will still carry a warning about the potential for allergic reactions, which the FDA requires for all medical devices made with latex.

Luminol for Infection Control

In the May 23rd issue of Reuters Health is an article about how Dutch researchers are using Luminol, a bioluminescent chemical, to detect blood contamination in kidney dialysis units. Units that were just cleaned and appeared to be free of contamination still showed traces of blood on numerous surfaces, including control panels, telephones and floors, when tested with Luminol. This is a great teaching tool for discussions about proper laboratory disinfection and infection control.