OSHA Sharp Regulations

The hospital systems around the United States employ more than 8,000,000 health care workers. It is estimated that up to 800,000 needle puncture injuries occur just among health care workers. Annually, at least 1,000 of these injuries result in the contraction of a serious infection, such as HBV, HCV or HIV. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Sharp Regulations intend to shrink this number and provide an educational and reactionary framework for needle injury prevention.

Hospital Requirements

• The OSHA requires that each hospital have a written control plan to eliminate and minimize worker exposure to blood-borne pathogens. They must comply with codes that mandate all potentially infectious human blood be treated and handled as infectious material. Engineering controls and work practices must be instituted to eliminate or minimize worker exposure. The hospital must keep detailed documents and injury logs explaining how Sharps injuries occur, including which device was used and where the injury happened. They must also protect the confidentiality of the injured employee.

Employee protection

• Sharp regulations maintain that personal protective equipment must be issued to employees handling needles and infectious blood if work practices do not first eliminate the need for occupational exposure. The employee must be trained in proper needle handling and be prohibited to bend, recap or remove contaminated needles unless it is required by a specific procedure or cannot be avoided in any way. In addition, free Hepatitis B vaccinations must be offered to all employees exposed to blood-borne pathogens and worker must be trained regularly in good work practices.

New Technology

• As technology improves, the OSHA standards require that hospitals expand their definition of engineering controls to include new devices that minimize Sharp exposure and risk. This practice must be documented in their Exposure Control Plan. All attempts should be made to use passive instruments. Passive instruments do not require human activation and therefore greatly reduce the risk of human error and injury. Regulations have also attempted to ensure that safety mechanisms on Sharp devices are easy to use and practical in order to reduce the frequency of human error.