106th Congress
Text of Needlestick legislation
HEALTH CARE WORKER NEEDLESTICK PREVENTION ACT OF 1999 H.R. 1899/S. 1140
On May 20, 1999, Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA) and Marge Roukema (R-NJ) introduced H.R. 1899, the "Health Care Worker Needlestick Prevention Act of 1999." Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Harry Reid (D-NV) introduced an identical bill, S. 1140, on May 26, 1999. This legislation would reduce the risk of bloodborne diseases from accidental needle stick injuries sustained by thousands of health care workers every year.H.R. 1899 and S. 1140 would amend the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA’s) bloodborne pathogens standard to require all health care facilities to use needle systems and sharps with engineered protections such as retractable needles. In carrying out the requirement, employers would work with direct health care workers who use such devices to ensure the appropriate selection of technology.
H.R. 1899 and S.1140 would require employers to create and keep a sharps injury log containing detailed information about any sharps injuries that occur. Employers would be required to adequately train direct health care workers on the use of needleless technologies and systems with engineered sharps protections. Between 600,000 and one million health care workers suffer needle stick injuries every year; however, at the present time, there is no uniform collection of data on sharps injuries to enable these incidents to be tracked, learned from and prevented.
H.R.1899 and S.1140 would establish a new clearinghouse within the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to collect data on engineered safety technology designed to help prevent the risk of needle sticks and other sharps injuries. NIOSH would have access to the sharps injury logs in order to carry out these new tasks, the institute is authorized $15 million in new funding.
The Department of Health and Human Services would promulgate new regulations regarding conditions of participation in Medicare for those hospitals that are not covered by OSHA so that all hospitals across the country would, in effect, be covered by these new bloodborne pathogens requirements.
Safe needle technology will not be immediately, universally available and appropriate for all uses in the health car arena. Recognizing this fact, the bill provided for an exceptions process if an employer can demonstrate circumstances in which the technology:
- Does not promote employee safety,
- interferes with patient safety,
- interferes with the success of a medical procedure,
- is not commercially available in the marketplace.
| THE MESSAGE TO CONGRESS IS:
Please cosponsor H.R. 1899 or S. 1140, the "Health Care Worker Needlestick Prevention Act of 1999." Help us reduce the risk of bloodborne diseases from accidental needle stick injuries! |
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