Sharps Injuries Among Hospital Workers in Massachusetts: Findings from the Massachusetts Sharps Injury Surveillance System, 2011

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Massachusetts. Department of Public Health
• Description:
  Data Highlights and Prevention Measures: 2,892 sharps injuries (SIs) were reported in 2011. The SI rate for workers in all MDPH licensed hospitals was 15.7 SIs per 100 licensed beds, similar to rates for 2009-10 (Figure 1). Comparable findings were noted in rates for employees (per full time employee equivalents) in acute care hospitals only (Figure 2). The trend in rates over time (Figures 2) suggests that the earlier observed decline in rates from 2002-2009 may be leveling off. Not all workers report their SIs to employee health, thus this plateauing could reflect a positive change, i.e., increased worker reporting. Nevertheless, these findings underscore the need for continued commitment to preventing SIs. Hospitals, in interpreting their own SI rates, need to understand reporting practices in their facilities. After excluding SIs due to suture needles, 53% of SIs involved (Sharps with engineered sharps injury protections) SESIPs. This is a substantially higher proportion than observed in the early years of surveillance (32% in 2002) and is good news as it likely reflects increased use of SESIPS as required. However, while use of SESIPs is critical to preventing SIs, these devices are not failsafe. These findings raise critical questions about the extent to which these injuries are associated with factors such as inexperience and lack of training in the use of these devices or flaws in the product design. Hospitals should provide training in use of SESIPS and safe work practices and involve front line workers in selecting devices as part of a comprehensive SI prevention program. Injuries during sharps disposal are entirely preventable. They account for 6% of reported SIs, and may be due to improper disposal, over filled or poorly placed sharps disposal containers. Prevention strategies include the appropriate placement and selection of containers that allow staff to determine when containers should be emptied before they are dangerously full. It is recommended that containers are replaced when ¾ full. It is also crucial to implement systems to regularly check containers to identify those that need replacement. This may be done by assigning someone to check containers at the beginning of a shift or other regular intervals, and requesting replacements where needed. Staff should be provided with a number to call when containers need to be replaced. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Epidemiology Health Personnel Needlestick Injuries Occupational Exposure Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Health Care Workers Injury Prevention Needlestick Injuries Occupational Exposure Sharps Surveillance
• Publisher:
  Massachusetts Department of Public Health
• Document Type:
  Text
• Funding:
  Cooperative Agreement
• Genre:
  Report
• Place as Subject:
  Massachusetts ; OSHA Region 1
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  1-12
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20061318
• Citation:
  Boston, MA: Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 2014 Aug; :1-12
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2014
• Performing Organization:
  Massachusetts State Department of Public Health - Boston
• Peer Reviewed:
  False
• Start Date:
  20050701
• Source Full Name:
  Sharps injuries among hospital workers in Massachusetts: findings from the Massachusetts Sharps Injury Surveillance System, 2011
• End Date:
  20260630
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:f20b9a0c8c2147a112075afcead4d65e38c6c984471a13596c719866115b07d55a7aed1fb4db8abffe31a349f8b68790ff69daec6f6bec01f99a5aed810388ee
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/224881/cdc_224881_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 816.35 KB ]