OSACH: Planning Guide to the Implementation of Safety Engineered Medical Sharps

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Prevention of Blood and Body Fluid Exposure – Safety Engineered Medical Sharps

Blood and body fluids may carry infectious disease agents such as the HIV, hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus, and are a hazard for health care employees. Exposure may come from a splash or spray onto open skin surfaces and mucous membranes, as well as from cuts and punctures (percutaneous injuries) from sharp objects contaminated with blood and body fluids.

Review of Available Statistics

Data regarding blood and body fluid (BBF) exposures are available from a number of sources such as formal surveillance systems and research studies. However, the total number of workers exposed to blood and body fluids is unknown.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in the United States has estimated that as many as 384,000 percutaneous injuries occur annually in hospitals, with most of these resulting from hollow-bore needles (US GAO, 2000). This estimate is based only on data collected from the hospital sector and does not reflect workplaces such as long-term care and retirement homes, clinics or community care. In Canada, the Alliance for Sharps Safety and Needlestick Prevention, a coalition of manufacturers and worker groups, estimates approximately 21,264 injuries annually. Again, this is an underestimation based primarily on data from the hospital sector.

In Ontario, the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) collects data related to workplace injury and illness claims. Figure 1 shows the WSIB data for claims related to needle-stick injuries.

The graph in Figure 1 clearly shows a trend toward an increase in the number of reported WSIB claims.

One of the principal sources of information about rates of BBF exposures and percutaneous injuries is from a data collection system known as EPINet™. The EPINet™ data is drawn from health care facilities in the US using the EPINet™ software. EPINet™ data suggests that the number of percutaneous injuries among staff may be as high as 26 per 100 occupied beds annually in teaching hospitals, and 18 per 100 occupied beds annually in non-teaching health care facilities (Perry, Parker and Jagger, 2005).

Figure 1 – Needlestick Claims, 1998 to 2006