Needlestick Safety and
Prevention Act Passes House
Goal is to Protect
Healthcare Workers From 'Sharps' Injuries
WASHINGTON – The
House approved bipartisan legislation today to help protect healthcare
workers from accidental injury by needlesticks, which are needles and
other sharp devices used in the healthcare facilities. The bill, the Needlestick Safety
and Prevention Act (H.R. 5178), amends the Occupational Safety and Health
Administration’s (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard to include the
definition of “safer medical devices” and the requirement that employers
must consider and implement the use of such safer medical devices in their
facilities. The bill,
sponsored by subcommittee chairman Cass Ballenger (R-NC) passed by voice
vote.
“This legislation will help ensure that our nation’s nearly eight
million health care workers will not have to risk their own health, and
perhaps their own lives, when providing care for all of us,” Ballenger
said. “More than 600,000
needlestick injuries occur annually.
Safer medical devices decrease the risk of exposure and improve
worker safety. The bill makes
certain that safer medical devices will be used and the lives of health
care workers will be made better for it.”
“I want to congratulate Congressman Ballenger for his leadership on
this issue,” said House Education and the Workforce Chairman Bill Goodling
(R-PA). “He forged a
consensus between the employer and the employee communities on the best
way to protect health care workers.”
Since it was issued in 1991,
the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard is credited with bringing about
significant improvements in reducing the risks of occupational exposure to
bloodborne pathogens. Despite
the improvements, the number of accidental needlestick injuries to
healthcare workers remains high.
During the past 10 years, significant improvements have been made
in the types and kinds of needle devices available to employers to help
protect against needlestick and other sharps injuries.
“Safer medical devices” commonly refer to needles and other medical
instruments that have built-in safety mechanisms that reduce or eliminate
exposure to needles or other sharp objects. The legislation requires employers
to maintain a record of sharps injuries, known as a “sharps injury log,”
as a means to record the high risk areas in their facilities and to
include frontline health care workers in the selection of safer
devices.
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