Workbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Sharps Injury Prevention Program

Contents:

APPENDIX F – GLOSSARY

Administrative Controls: A method of controlling employee exposures through enforcement of policies and procedures, modification of work assignment, training in specific work practices, and other administrative measures designed to reduce the exposure. (OSHA)

Bloodborne pathogens: Pathogenic microorganisms that are present in human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens include, but are not limited to, hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). (OSHA)

Continuous quality improvement: A systematic, organization-wide approach for continually improving all processes involved in the delivery of quality products and services.

Control Chart: A statistical tool used to track an important condition over time and to watch for changes in both the average value and the variation.

Culture of Safety/Safety Culture: The shared commitment of management and employees to ensure the safety of the work environment.

Engineering Controls: In the context of sharps injury prevention, means controls (e.g., sharps disposal containers; safer medical devices, such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and needleless systems) that isolate or remove the bloodborne pathogens hazard from the workplace. (OSHA)

EPINet: The Exposure Prevention Information Network developed by Dr. Janine Jagger at the University of Virginia in 1991 to provide standardized methods for recording and tracking percutaneous injuries and blood and body fluid contacts.

Engineered Sharps Injury Prevention Device: (See Safety Device)

Exposure:

1. Exposure Incident/Event means a specific eye, mouth, other mucous membrane, non-intact skin, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that results from the performance of an employee’s duties. (OSHA)
2. Occupational Exposure means reasonably anticipated skin, eye, mucous membrane, or parenteral contact with blood or other potentially infectious materials that may result from the performance of an employee’s duties. (OSHA)

Failure Mode Analysis: A technique to find the weaknesses in designs before the design is realized, either in prototype or production.

Forcing Function: A safety design feature that prevents improper use of the device (e.g., valves on intravenous administration sets that disallow needle access).

Hierarchy of controls: Concept used by the industrial hygiene profession to prioritize prevention interventions. Hierarchically these include administrative controls, engineering controls, personal protective equipment and work practice controls

Hollow-bore needle: Needle (e.g., hypodermic needle, phlebotomy needle) with a lumen through which material (e.g., medication, blood) can flow.

NaSH: The National Surveillance System for Health Care Workers systematically collects information important to prevent occupational exposures to healthcare personnel through a collaboration between CDC and participating hospitals. Surveillance of blood and body fluid exposures is one of several modules that is part of NaSH.

Near miss/close call: An event or situation that could have resulted in an accident, injury or illness, but did not, either by chance or through timely intervention.

Needlestick: Penetrating stab wounds caused by needles.

Percutaneous: Effected or performed through the skin.

Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Specialized equipment worn by an employee to protect against a hazard.

Phlebotomy: The letting of blood for transfusion, pheresis, diagnostic testing, or experimental procedures.

Recapping: The act of replacing a protective sheath on a needle. The OSHA Bloodborne Pathogens Standard prohibits recapping needles unless the employer can demonstrate that no alternative is feasible, or that such action is required by a specific medical or dental procedure. (OSHA)

Root cause analysis: A process for identifying the basic or contributing causal factors that underlie variations in performance associated with adverse events or close calls.

Safety Device/Sharps with Engineered Sharps Injury Protections (ESIPS): a nonneedle sharp or a needle device used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or artery, or administering medications or other fluids, with a built-in safety feature or mechanism that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident. (OSHA)

Seroconversion: The development of antibodies in the blood of an individual who previously did not have detectable antibodies, following exposure to an infectious agent.

Sharps: Any object that can penetrate the skin including, but not limited to, needles, scalpels, broken glass, broken capillary tubes, and exposed ends of dental wires.

Sharps Injury: An exposure event occurring when any sharps penetrates the skin.

Solid Sharp: A sharp that does not have a lumen through which material can flow, e.g., suture needle, scalpel.

Standard Precautions: An approach to infection control recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since 1996. Standard precautions synthesizes the major features of universal precautions and applies to blood and all moist body substances, not just those associated with bloodborne virus transmission. Standard precautions is designed to prevent transmission of infectious agents in the healthcare setting to patients and healthcare personnel.

Toyota Production System: A technology of comprehensive production management invented by the Japanese. The basic idea of this system is to maintain a continuous flow of products in factories in order to flexibly adapt to demand changes.

Universal Precautions: An approach to infection control that treats all human blood and other potentially infectious materials as if they were infectious for HIV and HBV or other bloodborne pathogens.

Work practice controls: Actions that reduce the likelihood of exposure by altering the manner in which a task is performed (e.g., visual inspection of a sharps container for hazards before attempting disposal).