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Improving Patient Care
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Reducing the Regulatory Burden Safety Needles Issue Medical advances are bringing sophisticated treatments to more people than ever and increasing the opportunity for patient and worker safety. Protecting patients and health care workers from needlesticks and other sharps device injuries is of critical importance to the health care field. Labor unions, nursing organizations and other hospital employee groups are putting enormous pressure on Congress, state legislatures and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to mandate the use of safety medical devices. Legislation requiring the use of safety needles (retractable or blunted needles and syringes) in hospitals and health systems as a condition of participation in Medicare was introduced last year in the House and Senate. Federal agencies such as OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) have also taken action. In 1998, California passed legislation requiring health facilities to use safety needles. Tennessee and Texas have enacted limited versions of California's safety needle law, and more than 20 states have introduced similar legislation. Maryland has directed a study on the issue. Safety needle legislative efforts will continue to be a priority. AHA View Last year, OSHA reviewed the use of safety needles and in November 1999 updated its compliance directive, which governs enforcement of the Bloodborne Pathogen Standard. Consistent with the wider array of safety devices available in the marketplace, the directive now explicitly includes safety needles and other devices in its definition of engineering controls. The directive, aimed at reducing accidental needlesticks and other sharps injuries, is flexible. OSHA does not require the use of one particular medical device over another, but requires hospitals and health systems to ensure that they use available technology in their safety and health programs. Hospitals are now expected to update annually their exposure control plans for bloodborne pathogens and provide for adoption of appropriate engineering controls (safety needles and other devices) and work practices to minimize the risks to workers. |
