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Hospital Administrators' Tolerance of Staff Needlestick Injuries

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Carla J. Treloar ,
John A. Malcolm ,
David C. Sutherland ,
Sandy Berenger  and
Nick Higginbotham
Carla J. Treloar
Affiliation:
Clinical Immunology Unit of John Hunter Hospital, Hunter Area Health Service
John A. Malcolm
Affiliation:
Clinical Immunology Unit of John Hunter Hospital, Hunter Area Health Service
David C. Sutherland
Affiliation:
Clinical Immunology Unit of John Hunter Hospital, Hunter Area Health Service
Sandy Berenger
Affiliation:
Area Infection Control Consultant of John Hunter Hospital, Hunter Area Health Service
Nick Higginbotham
Affiliation:
Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Newcastle, Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia
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Abstract

Objecitve:

To survey hospital administrators regarding their opinions of an acceptable frequency of staff needlestick injury and the frequency that would prompt additional preventive action.

Design:

A simple anonymous questionnaire sent to 960 administrators with one reminder. Data were collected regarding hospital size and community role, whether human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients had ever been treated, presence of an infection control practitioner, estimation of the proportion of staff vaccinated against hepatitis B, and opinions as to the acceptable frequency of needlestick accidents and the accident frequency requiring additional action.

Setting:

240 public hospitals in New South Wales, Australia.

Participants:

The executive officers, directors of medical services, directors of nursing, and safety officers of the hospitals surveyed.

Results:

The response rate was 50%. Administrators' opinions of acceptable accident frequency increased with hospital size and (independently of size) with experience with HIV-infected patients, and with the presence of a full-time infection control practitioner. Accident frequencies judged to require additional preventive action were higher than injury frequencies regarded as acceptable.

Conclusions:

The hospital administrators surveyed accept staff needlestick injuries as inevitable, the more so in hospitals that have treated known HIV-infected patients and that have full-time infection control practitioners.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 15 , Issue 5 , May 1994 , pp. 307 - 310
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 1994

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References

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