VA Health Care

Purchases of Safer Devices Should Be Based on Risk of Injury Gao ID: HEHS-95-12 November 17, 1994

Every day health care workers suffer cuts, punctures, nicks, and gashes from needles and other sharp instruments used in taking care of patients. These injuries can result in transmission of the hepatitis-B virus, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and other blood-borne diseases. Safer needles and sharp devices are being marketed by companies claiming that their products can reduce the number of accidental injuries. Such devices eliminate the need for a needle, maintain a protective cover over a needle, provide an alternative to resheathing a needle after use, or use some other safety mechanism. This report discusses (1) the incidence of needle and sharp instrument injuries among health care workers in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA); (2) the extent to which VA health care workers have tested positive for hepatitis B or HIV after a needle or sharp instrument injury; (3) the safety procedures and devices now used to minimize these injuries; (4) the extent to which VA is adopting new, safer technologies to prevent needle and sharp instrument injuries; and (5) the cost of screening and treating personnel who have received needle and sharp instrument injuries.

GAO found that: (1) medical equipment injuries may be understated because they are not being reported by VA health care workers; (2) as of September 1994, no VA health care worker had been reported as having acquired HIV or Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome because of a percutaneous injury; (3) VA does not know the number of workers who may have acquired hepatitis B through work-related percutaneous injuries because it does not routinely collect those data; (4) VA has implemented safety procedures and standards designed to protect health care workers from percutaneous injuries; (5) VA medical centers' acquisition of safer devices varies widely; (6) VA needs to improve the dissemination of information among VA medical centers about the efficacy of safer devices; and (7) VA does not gather data on the costs associated with screening and treating its health care workers injured by needle or sharp devices.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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