- Requires minimal requirements for employers to use Engineering and Work Practice controls to eliminate or minimize employee exposure to bloodborne pathogens
- Emphasis on “safer” medical devices
- Employers must also maintain a sharps injury log for the recording of percutaneous injuries from contaminated sharps
- The more data that is collected, whether good or bad, the more it helps us find smaller problem areas before they become larger
For example, an ambulance company reported 7 percutaneous needlestick injuries within a one-year period. After an investigation it was determined that there were no sharps containers within reach of the typical "IV starting area" in the ambulance and NO sharps containers within "first-in" equipment. Since adding sharps containers where they were lacking, there have been ZERO needlestick injuries for 2 years and counting. [4]
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