PPE use, especially respirators and
face shields is higher now than ever.
Perhaps this is the reason why it
always should have been.” Mitchell
View EPINet points clinicians to EPINet Report
Report
for Blood and Body Fluid Exposures.
Mitchell continues, “From what
we know, SARS-CoV-2 is not transmitted
by blood and therefore not a bloodborne
pathogen, but that does not mean that
precautions put in place to prevent sharps
injuries, needlesticks, and splashes and
splatters won’t also improve safety of
healthcare personnel from this or any
other novel virus.”
Mitchell says that hospitals can curb
and eliminate injuries and exposures
through implementing evidence-based
best practices to boost occupational health.
“Best practices for reducing occupational
exposures to sharps injuries, needlesticks,
and mucocutaneous exposures include
putting practices into place based on what
we know works and also based on what
exposure incident and injury data looks like
in a person’s facility. Relying on surveillance
data, whether that is EPINet or a facility’s
sharps injury log and OSHA 300, to learn
from and prevent future exposures may be
the best tool in our prevention arsenal.”
She continues, “For example, if suture
injuries during skin closure in the operating
room are high incident exposure types,
facilities need to evaluate and adopt
different technologies for that procedure
including zipper closures, adhesives, staples,
etc. when appropriate. If injuries from
disposable syringes like insulin needles are
high, consider improving SIP device use,
safe safety feature activation, and safe
disposal or moving to new innovations in
pen needles with SIP features included. If
there is a high percentage of downstream
injuries, for example nationally we know
that nearly one-quarter of all sharps injuries
occur to the non-user of the device, then
focus should be on SIP activation and safe
disposal in patient and procedure rooms
and no-hands/neutral zone passing of
surgical instruments in an operating room.
If injuries from scalpel blades are high, then
evaluating and implementing use of safer
designs should be the focus area. This could
include scalpels with retracting blades or
blade covers to prevent cuts or sticks when
the device is not in use.”
As Mitchell emphasizes, “Really, best
practices should be driven by what you
know about the injuries and exposures
happening in your facility. Your occupational
incident data is your best measure
of that. Keep in mind though, reporting
of sharps injuries, needlesticks, and mucocutaneous
exposures is still lower than
desired, so injuries and exposures are likely
occurring even if your data doesn’t show it.
That’s why it is also important to do rounds,
interview employees, and participate in
infection prevention and occupational
health committees and to be in tune with
risk management, environmental health
and safety, biosafety, the clinical laboratory,
ph: +1-888-699-9304 | [email protected] | ContecProfessional.com
sterile processing, surgical leadership,
and materials management, as well as
any others that share the responsibility of
worker health and safety with you.”
When Clean
Counts
MOST
™
COUNT ON Contec®
Professional
*
References:
American Society of Safety Professionals. Webinar:
High Frequency, High Severity and High Relevance:
Needlesticks, Sharps Injuries and Bloodborne Pathogen
Exposure Prevention. July 10, 2020.
International Safety Center. EPINet data
accessible at: https://internationalsafetycenter.org/
exposure-reports/
Our products are
durable, maximize the
efficacy of cleaning
chemicals, and help
eliminate crosscontamination.
We
help you ensure critical
environments
are truly clean.
Contec is proud
to offer several
products on the
EPA’s List N.
* Sporicidin ® is listed on the EPA’s
List N for use against SARS-CoV-2,
the virus that causes COVID-19.
www.healthcarehygienemagazine.com • august 2020
19