Survey Shows Continuing Concern about Needlesticks
MedPro Safety Products, Inc. said it surveyed 262 health care professionals during a conference in mid-2011, and 43 percent of them said they don't believe safety features in place to prevent injuries are always used.
Needlestick injuries remain a significant concern for health care professionals, according to a survey conducted earlier this year by Lexington, Ky.-based MedPro Safety Products, Inc. The company, which offers products including a blood collection product line offers a passive safety mechanism that is automatically activated, released the findings Dec. 5.
The survey of 262 health care professionals at the APIC 2011 Annual Educational Conference held in Baltimore in June 2011 found that:
- 68 percent do not believe syringe needlestick injuries have been eliminated where they work despite FDA, CDC, and OSHA requirements in place for more than a decade.
- 43 percent do not believe the safety features that prevent needlestick injury are always activated after use and prior to disposal at their institutions, and less than 40 percent check for activation.
- 43 percent are not happy or are ambivalent about the current syringes used where they work.
The company conducted a second survey at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear 2011 Clinical Meeting and Exhibition, held Dec. 4-8 in New Orleans. This survey asked pharmacists for their views of drug development and delivery and how packaging issues affect workflow and patient safety. The survey also focused on potential improvements to existing prefilled syringes and needlestick prevention technology.
"We gathered helpful insights from the survey of health care professionals at APIC," said Bethany Denning, director of Corporate Relations for MedPro Safety Products. "Our survey at ASHP will help us learn more from pharmacists and has been structured to provide additional information on issues of specific concern to these important professionals, including the benefits of prefilled drug delivery systems. We look forward to reviewing and being guided by the results."