Understanding the hospital sharps injury reporting pathway

Details

• Personal Author:
  Boden LI ; Hashimoto D ; Hopcia K ; Petrofsky YV ; Wagner, Gregory R.
• Description:
  Background: Patient-care workers are frequently exposed to sharps injuries, which can involve the risk of serious illness. Underreporting of these injuries can compromise prevention efforts. Methods: We linked survey responses of 1,572 non-physician patient-care workers with the Occupational Health Services (OHS) database at two academic hospitals. We determined whether survey respondents who said they had sharps injuries indicated that they had reported them and whether reported injuries were recorded in the OHS database. Results: Respondents said that they reported 62 of 78 sharps injuries occurring over a 12-month period. Only 28 appeared in the OHS data. Safety practices were positively associated with respondents' saying they reported sharps injuries but not with whether reported injuries appeared in the OHS data. Conclusions: Administrators should consider creating reporting mechanisms that are simpler and more direct. Administrators and researchers should attempt to understand how incidents might be lost before they are recorded. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Health Care Facilities Workforce And Services Health Personnel Needlestick Injuries Occupational Health Risk Assessment Risk Factors Safety
• Keywords:
  Author Keywords: Surveillance Health-care-personnel Hospital Incident Reporting Injuries Medical-facilities Medical-personnel Needlestick-injuries Nurses Occupational Injuries Risk-factors Safety-practices Sharps Injuries Total-Worker-Health Underreporting

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• ISSN:
  0271-3586
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement ; Grant
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  California ; District of Columbia ; Illinois ; Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1 ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 5 ; OSHA Region 9
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  OD - Office of the Director
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  282-289
• Volume:
  58
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20045181
• Citation:
  Am J Ind Med 2015 Mar; 58(3):282-289
• Contact Point Address:
  Dr. Leslie I. Boden, PhD, Boston University School of Public Health, 715 Albany Street, T-444W, Boston, MA 02118
• Email:
  lboden@bu.edu
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Performing Organization:
  Harvard University, Boston, Massachusetts
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Start Date:
  20070901
• Source Full Name:
  American Journal of Industrial Medicine
• End Date:
  20260831
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3f6cfaf38c48751d211b9174d0ff0d3bdadcf0e02b09cf2fab61b6a32b0864a211b8e17cdeb4b4f6b9f661bea9c13d5f2769552d26014750ad41ba13709d654b
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/200695/cdc_200695_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 189.58 KB ]