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S U R G I C A L
S A F E T Y
patient-safety issue."
You could let surveyors do the job for you. "Facilities only change if they're cited," says a clinical education specialist for a medical device manufacturer. One reader noted the educational effect of a run-in with OSHA. "When the facility got fined over $5,000 for not using them," says Jean Atkinson, RN, director of nursing at the Specialty Surgery Center
in Crossville, Tenn., "then, they were more than glad to use them." OSM
E-mail dbernard@outpatientsurg ery.net.
OSHA OBLIGATIONS
Sharps Safety Is a Federal Law
OSHA's Bloodborne Pathogens Standard (tinyurl.com/4f8mcwb), which includes the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, requires surgical facilities to develop and annually update a written, blood-and-body-fluid exposure control plan. This prevention plan should "reflect changes in technology that eliminate or reduce exposure to bloodborne pathogens; and … [d]ocument annually consideration and implementation of appropriate commercially available and effective safer
medical devices designed to eliminate or minimize occupational exposure."
According to the standard, facility administrators should also stay informed of new sharps safety products. "If an effective and clinically appropriate safety-engineered sharp exists, an employer must evaluate and implement it," unless it doesn't meet patient safety and medical integrity standards. This evaluation must "solicit input from non-managerial employees responsible for direct patient care who are potentially exposed to injuries from contaminated sharps … and [employers] shall document the solicitation in the Exposure Control Plan."
— David Bernard
