NAPPSI and ICT Announcethe Winner of the 2005 Primary Prevention Sharps Safety Award

NAPPSI and ICT Announcethe Winner of the 2005 Primary Prevention Sharps Safety Award

The third annual Primary PreventionSharps Safety Award is sponsored by the National Alliance for the PrimaryPrevention of Sharps Injuries (NAPPSI) and ICT,and is awarded to the healthcare facility that most effectively implements aprimary prevention program that exemplifies the no needle equals no riskphilosophy of NAPPSI. The primary prevention concept prevents sharps injury byimplementing a technique or device that eliminates the use of needles and othersharps from the healthcare workplace. This year, the award goes to FloridaHospital of Orlando, the flagship hospital for an integrated healthcare deliverysystem consisting of seven hospitals and 14 Centra-Care walk-in medical centers.It is part of the Adventist Health System whose mission is to extend thehealing ministry of Jesus Christ through a commitment to the physical, mentaland spiritual well-being of patients, employees and friends. Congratulationsto this outstanding healthcare system.

The Program

Primary prevention ofsharps injury entails both products and practices. First, lets look at theworkplace practices that made Florida Hospital a winner. At Florida Hospital,the sharps safety committee meets quarterly to assess outcomes and extend andimplement their exposure control plan throughout the entire system. Pediatricsis included, whenever appropriate, in the committees considerations. Inaddition, the infection control departments monthly meetings regularly reviewand analyze all sharps injuries. Florida Hospital recognizes that infectioncontrol affects sharps injury prevention; no CVC infection, for example, meansno CVC reinsertion, therefore, rigorous emphasis has been placed on handwashingand maximal barrier protection. Florida Hospital also publishes a ClinicalNews Capsule for all clinicians involved with patient contact. Articles oftenfocus on needlestick safety and infection control principles. Florida Hospital also conducts an annual safety fair, designedto familiarize and instruct all attendees as to current and future sharps safetypractices and products.

Perhaps most importantly, Florida Hospital operates its safetyprograms in accordance with Six Sigma quality and statistical principles. A keyelement of this program is the early buy-in from top management in theimplementation of various safety programs. This enables programs to proceedunencumbered, with top-down support, and full cooperation at all levels. Bytaking this systems approach, Florida Hospital has created a culture of safetyawareness at all levels.

The Products

NAPPSI advocates theprudent combination of primary and secondary prevention devices in order tomaximize workplace safety (see the Clinician Advisory at www.nappsi.org).

First, some of the primary prevention products in use atFlorida Hospital:

• ChloraPrep, 2 percent chlorhexidine gluconate in isopropylalcohol; this skin antiseptic provides immediate and prolonged antimicrobialaction and has received a Category IA recommendation from the Centers forDisease Control and Prevention (CDC).

• StatLock CV Plus, StatLock PICC Plus, and StatLock IVUltra provide tape-free and suture-free securement for peripheral and centralvenous catheters. These kinds of products are noted by the CDC as advantageousover suture in preventing catheter-related bloodstream infections and proven in numerous studies to significantly reduceunscheduled catheter restarts.

• Clave and UltraSite luer-activated access valves eliminatethe need to use a needle to access an intravenous line, thus allowing forneedle-free fluid and medication delivery.

• Arrow Guard Blue CVC; the antimicrobial coating inside andoutside of this CVC is proved to prevent catheter-related bloodstreaminfections. Clinicians should remember that it takes four sharps tonormally insert and stabilize a CVC: lidocaine needle, finder needle, scalpelblade, and suture, so preventing a CVC-related infection means keeping fourrestart needles out of the workplace.

• Bard IC Foley Catheter; this antimicrobial Foley catheteris a primaryprevention of sharps injury product because has been demonstrated toreduce catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs), the most commonnosocomial infection in the world. CAUTIs also predispose patients to urosepsis.Think of all the hollow-bore, blood-filled needles involved in a sepsis workupand treatment; infection control really does mean primary prevention.

• Duragesic® (Janssen Pharmaceutica Products) forneedlefree drug delivery of (fentanyl transdermal system) CII for painmanagement.

• Surgical glues, such as Dermabond from Ethicon forneedlefree wound closures

• Bilicheck (SpectRx), a non-invasive Bilirubinanalyzer accurately measures the total serum bilirubin in neonatal patients.

The secondary sharps injury prevention products implemented byFlorida Hospital include:

• B. Braun Introcan Safety IV catheters; these are safety IVcatheters that offer a passive safety mechanism that is virtually impossible tocircumvent. In studies at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, this safetycatheter out-performed other leading active safety catheters. The hospitalalso uses the BD Insyte Autoguard safety IV catheter.

• Safety Introducers for PICCs; introducer needles arehigh-risk, so ensuring that these have engineered sharps protection isimportant.

• Monoject, Magellan safety syringes; clinicians shouldrecall that a prestigious New York City hospital received a citation from theOccupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) for not using safetysyringes.

• Mylar coated capillary tubes

• Safety phlebotomy systemsfrom Sims Portex, Kendal and BD

• Galt safety scalpels

• Safety disposal systems from Kendall

The Florida Hospital System

In1999, The Wall Street Journal namedFlorida Hospital the hospital of the future. The Florida hospital system now includes seven hospitals and14 walk-in medical centers, servicing more than a million patients per year. Thesystem is the Adventist Health Systems flagship organization and isconsistently recognized for its superiority in heart, obstetrics, orthopedics,womens health, research, family practice, and cancer treatment.

Florida Hospital is continually updating our devices andprotocols to reduce the number of stick injuries to both our employees andpatients, states Karen Marcarelli, vice president of nursing. Theseinclude using needleless devices and the latest technologies in sutures designedto reduce the risk of infection. We are proud that our efforts in this importantarea of patient safety is being recognized with this award.

NAPPSI Launches Campaign for Primary Prevention of Sharps Injury

The National Alliance for the Primary Prevention of Sharps Injuries (NAPPSI) has launched a major campaign for a notification to clinicians on sharps injury prevention, to alert clinicians to the benefits of primary prevention of sharps injuries. The campaign focuses on petitioning health agencies in the United States to highlight the distinct benefits of primary and secondary prevention of sharps injuries.

The notification states: Healthcare workers who use or may be exposed to needles are at increased risk of needlestick injury. Such injuries can lead to serious or fatal infections with bloodborne pathogens such as hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). In order to prevent bloodborne pathogens exposure, clinicians are advised to utilize both primary and secondary sharps injury prevention techniques. Primary prevention techniques eliminate the needs to introduce sharps into the workplace, thereby reducing the total number of sharps used. Secondary prevention techniques render safer those sharps that must be introduced into the workplace. The combination of primary and secondary prevention maximizes healthcare worker safety with respect to blood borne pathogens exposure from sharps injury. For more information, visitwww.nappsi.org

Meet the 2005 NAPPSI/ICT PrimaryPrevention
Sharps Safety Award Sponsors

B. Braun

B. Braun is dedicated to providing innovative products thathelp deliver safer patient care, enhance performance and support best practicesand compliance. The passive Introcan Safety® IV Catheter is designed tominimize accidental needlesticks without requiring user activation. Using thesame passive technology, our Surecan® Safety Huber Needle is designed toprotect against accidental rebound needlestick injuries for safe port access.The ULTRASITE® Needle-Free IV System, with positive displacement design,minimizes catheter occlusions while protecting patients and caregivers fromaccidental needlesticks.

www.bbraunusa.com

Hospira

Hospira is a global specialty pharmaceutical and medicationdelivery company dedicated to Advancing Wellness by developing, manufacturingand marketing products that help improve the safety and efficacy of patientcare. Created from the core global hospital products business of AbbottLaboratories, Hospira is a new company with 70 years of service to the hospitalindustry. The companys portfolio includes the industrys broadest line ofacute-care injectables and integrated solutions for medication management andinfusion therapy.

www.hospira.com

Tyco Kendall

Tyco Kendall has demonstrated its commitment to providingtop-quality sharps containers, needles and syringes and blood collectionproducts to the healthcare industry, developing and manufacturing the broadestrange of products available withy the clinician in mind and strict qualitycontrol measures in place. The best products for the job, the safest products onthe market.

www.tycohealthcare.com

BD (Becton Dickinson and Company)

Manufacturer of the BD Vacutainer® and Microtainer® brand and system of products, BD (BectonDickinson and Company) is committed to identifying and helping to preventsources of pre-analytical error through a combined product and service offering. Products include: BD Vacutainer® Push Button Blood CollectionSet, BD Vacutainer® Eclipse Blood Collection Needle with Pre-Attached Holder,BD Vacutainer® Blood Transfer Device, BD Vacutainer® Blood Collection Tubes,BD Vacutainer® Latex Free Stretch Tourniquet.

www.bd.com

Venetec

StatLock safety securement devices replace the outmodedcatheter fixation techniques of tape and suture to provide dramatically improvedpatient safety, healthcare worker protection and cost-benefits. StatLock isfast-becoming the new standard for securement of all medical tubes andcatheters. In fact, the CDC has recently acknowledged that StatLock is superiorto suture in reducing catheter-related blood stream infection. Similarly, OSHAand the U.S. Congress have recognized StatLock as a needlestick safety deviceunder the law. StatLock the new standard of care for vascular access devicesecurement.

www.statlock.com