Understanding the Hospital Sharps Injury Reporting Pathway

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Ind Med
• Personal Author:
  Boden, Leslie I. ; Petrofsky, Yolanta V. ; Hopcia, Karen ; Wagner, Gregory R. ; Hashimoto, Dean
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  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.
  
  Materials and Methods
  
  We linked survey responses of 1572 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.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Adult Article Databases, Factual Equipment Safety Female Hospital Incident Reporting Hospitals, University Humans Male Middle Aged Needlestick Injuries Occupational Health Occupational Injuries Personnel, Hospital Risk Management Sharps Injuries Surveillance Underreporting

  More +
• Source:
  Am J Ind Med. 58(3):282-289
• Pubmed ID:
  25308763
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5077298
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  T42 OH008416/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; U19 OH008861/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; 5U19 OH008861/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States ; T42 OH008416-03/OH/NIOSH CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  58
• Issue:
  3
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:a8040f147314944238309c8c22dda11bfe28dae34daa3e4e0b571189f09187e1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/42225/cdc_42225_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 678.72 KB ]