Under the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard Compliance Directive, issued in November 1999, healthcare facilities are now required to provide sharps products with advanced protection features.

"Enhancing healthcare worker safety is a driving force at BD, and the new OSHA directive is one whose time has finally come," said BD President and CEO Edward J. Ludwig. "BD fully supports government regulation that encourages the wider development and use of safety-engineered medical devices, ensures the rights of healthcare workers to choose which devices they use, and maintains the highest quality standards of patient care and safety."

Last month, BD issued a public statement applauding the congressional hearing sponsored by Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-NC), held to examine the impact of the OSHA directive. "All parties involved in this important issue have reached a common ground of understanding and unity. The sentiment is overwhelmingly in favor of greater government involvement in ensuring healthcare worker safety," said Mr. Ludwig.

The BD Safety Compliance Initiative is the only program of its kind, providing consulting, training tools and resources to help healthcare facilities meet the rigorous standards set forth by Federal OSHA and the 15 states so far that have enacted needle safety legislation. Offered as a public service to healthcare organizations at no cost, BD’s new initiative is in keeping with the company’s long-standing commitment to healthcare worker safety and its mission of "helping all people live healthy lives."

A Comprehensive Program for Safety and Compliance
Under the OSHA directive, healthcare facilities are required to update and implement their Bloodborne Pathogen Exposure Control Plan, evaluate and implement the use of safety-engineered devices and provide Bloodborne Pathogen training to their staff. The BD Safety Compliance Initiative includes a menu of educational tools, tracking mechanisms and consultative support that can be customized to help facilities develop programs to meet the new regulatory requirements and maintain compliance. Specifics include:

• The BD Safety Compliance Initiative Kit, which provides background information and educational tools on the OSHA Compliance Directive and sharps safety, including a video on lessons learned during California’s recent transition to safety-engineered devices and independently developed product evaluation forms. The kit also outlines the five simple steps to compliance: understand, assess, review, implement and measure.

• EPINet™ for Windows®, the first-of-its-kind computerized needlestick surveillance program that tracks and analyzes device-related exposures to bloodborne diseases, funded by BD and developed by Jeanine Jagger, MPH, Ph.D., Director of the International Health Care Worker Safety Center at University of Virginia.

• BD training services and implementation support, including a "Train the Trainer" program, which provides training for designated individuals who will in turn train staff as needed.

• A highly knowledgeable staff of consultants available for questions, issues discussion, troubleshooting or program modifications throughout the transition process. BD consultants are specially trained in the intricacies of the OSHA regulations and the five steps to compliance, and will work with healthcare facilities to attain maximum value and results through their safety programs.

As the program gains momentum, additional elements will be added, such as an assortment of risk assessment tools, a "scorecard" for hospitals to use in reviewing their exposure control protocol, and the BD Safety Compliance Satellite Kit, specifically tailored to the special needs of doctors’ offices, nursing homes, and other alternate site facilities.

A History in Pioneering Safety
The BD Safety Compliance Initiative is the latest development in a long-standing tradition of commitment and leadership in the field of healthcare worker safety, dating back over 65 years to the introduction of the first safety-engineered device, the BD Yale Luer-Lok™ Syringe. By 1991, when OSHA issued the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard, BD had already introduced several safety-related products, including the first syringe with a shielded needle, the BD Safety-Lok™ Syringe. In 1994, BD introduced Insyte Autogard™ Shielded I.V. catheter, the largest selling medical device employing needle retracting technology.

"BD long ago recognized the need for action on this issue, and we are now uniquely positioned to support the healthcare industry through this significant market change," remarked Ludwig. "No other company has dedicated more in funding, training, human resources and technological expertise to the reduction of sharps injuries, or has played as substantial a role in sharps safety initiatives that have significantly advanced the cause of healthcare worker safety and patient care over the last two decades."

Some of BD’s major contributions include:

• Founder’s level sponsorship of the Frontline Foundation, recently merged with the National Campaign for Health Care Worker Safety and dedicated to minimizing occupational risks to healthcare workers.

• An unrestricted grant to the American Nurses Association (ANA), to fund the organization’s three-part educational program on needlestick prevention.

• An unrestricted grant to ANA and the Training for Development of Innovative Control Technologies (TDICT) Project, to fund safety-engineered product evaluation and regulation awareness workshops for healthcare practitioners.

• OSHA Bloodborne Pathogen Standard training program developed jointly with the American Medical Association.

• Sponsorship of Chair on Health Care Worker Safety at the University of Virginia, which conducts research on reducing accidental needlesticks.

In addition, BD is investing nearly $300 million to retool and upgrade its manufacturing facilities to meet the new demand for devices with advanced protection features resulting from the new compliance requirements. This marks another in a long line of major market conversions the company has led, including spearheading the industry’s massive transition from glass to plastic syringes in 1962.

BD is a medical technology company that manufactures and sells a broad range of supplies, devices, and systems for use by healthcare professionals, medical research institutions, industry and the general public. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 1999, BD reported total revenues of $3.4 billion and net income of $276 million.