Copyright 2000 Plain Dealer Publishing Co.
The
Plain Dealer
January 27, 2000 Thursday, FINAL / ALL
SECTION: METRO; Pg. 3B
LENGTH: 412 words
HEADLINE:
SENATE MANDATES SAFE NEEDLES;
HIV-INFECTED HOSPITAL NURSE RIVETS ATTENTION
BYLINE: By THOMAS SUDDES; PLAIN DEALER BUREAU
DATELINE: COLUMBUS
BODY:
After a nurse's searing testimony, the Ohio Senate yesterday unanimously
OK'd a bill to protect health-care workers on Ohio public payrolls from
needle-stick injuries.
The "safe needle" bill,
sponsored by State Sen. Dan Brady, a Cleveland Democrat, could reduce the
estimated 3,300 to 4,400 needle-stick injuries annually endured
by state, county and city health-care workers in Ohio, the nonpartisan
Legislative Budget Office reported. Karen A. Daley, president of the
Massachusetts Nurses Association, contracted both HIV and hepatitis C from a
needle-stick injury as an emergency-room caregiver at Boston's famed Brigham and
Women's Hospital.
Daley told the Senate Health, Human Services and Aging
Committee yesterday that if Brady's bill had been Massachusetts law at the time,
her injury could not have happened.
Even so, fewer than 15 percent of
all U.S. hospitals have policies like those Brady seeks, Daley told the
committee, chaired by State Sen. Grace L. Drake, a Solon Republican.
Drake's panel sat virtually stock-still - which is unusual for any
Statehouse committee - during Daley's wrenching testimony. Then it quickly
approved Brady's bill.
The bill would require public employers - such as
state university and county hospitals, and local health departments - to use
no-needle or safe-needle devices that minimize the risk of injury to nurses,
technicians and other front-line health workers.
This includes syringes
engineered so that after an injection or blood sampling is complete, the needle
retracts into a protective sheath.
Cleveland's MetroHealth system,
Ohio's largest county hospital, has already adopted a range of safe-needle
procedures and equipment, Brady said. None of Ohio's county hospitals objected
to the bill, said Paul Lee, their statehouse lobbyist.
The Brady bill's
backers include the American Federation of State, County and Municipal
Employees, which represents 9,000 Ohio health-care workers.
The bill
doesn't apply to Ohio's "voluntary" hospitals - most big-city and community
hospitals.
But many of those already have, or are considering,
safe-needle equipment and procedures, an Ohio Hospital Association spokeswoman
said.
Brady said that by mandating safe-needle practices in Ohio's
public sector, the overall cost of "safe needles" should fall, hastening their
use throughout Ohio's "voluntary hospital" sector.
Brady's bill must
pass the Ohio House and win Gov. Bob Taft's approval to become law.
LOAD-DATE: January 29, 2000 
