Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Unsafe Injection Practices prevail Despite Education Efforts

An online survey view of US health care providers finds some reporting syringe and needle reuse, putting patients at danger for blood-borne diseases such as HIV and hepatitis B and C. The year of May-June 2010 poll of 5,446 eligible respondents, took by the health care purchasing bond Premier Inc., included personnel from hospitals (66 percent) and non-hospital settings (34 percent).



Unsafe practices described included 6 percent reporting "sometimes or always" using single-dose/single-use medication vials for more than one patient; 0.9 percent "sometimes or always" reusing a syringe while altering only the needle for use on another patient; and 15.1 percent reusing a syringe to insert a multidose vial and then 6.5 percent saving that vial for use on some other patient (1.1 percent overall).

Safe Injection Practices are a set of recommendations within Standard Precautions, which are the foundation for preventing transmission of infections during patient care in all healthcare settings including hospitals, long-term care facilities, ambulatory care, home care and hospice.

No comments:

Post a Comment