Sharps Injuries

Among healthcare workers, the greatest risk for bloodborne pathogen exposure comes from percutaneous injury by “sharp” devices such as hollow needles, suture needles, and scalpels. In 2001, the Occupational Health and Safety Administration mandated that healthcare institutions minimize these injuries through such measures as use of sharp devices with engineered sharps-injury (SI) protection, reduced use of sharp devices overall, and improved education; the efficacy of these measures has not been well studied. Now, using data from the Massachusetts Sharps Injury Surveillance System, researchers have examined SI incidence among workers at 76 acute care hospitals in Massachusetts from 2002 through 2007.

During the study period, 16,158 SIs were reported (41% in nurses, 29% in physicians, 21% in technicians, 9% in other workers). The injuries occurred most frequently in operating and procedure rooms (41%), followed by inpatient units (23%); they happened most often during injection procedures (23%), blood procedures (19%), and suturing (19%). Fifty percent of the injuries occurred after device use (36% before disposal; 14% during or after disposal).

The annual rate of SIs was 22% lower in 2007 than in 2002. Significant decreases in SI rate were seen for nurses but not physicians — and with the use of winged steel needles and hypodermic needles and syringes but not intravenous stylets or suture needles.