Inside
Our
Sharps
Safety
Success
We
slashed
percutaneous
injuries
in
our
ORs
by
more
than
one-third.
T
wo years ago, OR team members across our health system
were stuck or cut 276 times, which was 276 more times more
than we'd have liked. We implemented a safety program that
reduced sharps injuries by 37%. Here's how we pulled it off.
Sharing of stats
Surgeons, nurses and techs are typically guilty of focusing more on
patient safety than on their own well-being and often take sharps safety
for granted. Sticks and cuts? Can't happen to me. But it can and does
at alarming rates around the country. To get your staff and surgeons to
change their sharps handling practices, you first have to convince them
of the very real dangers that sharps present. Try sharing these com-
pelling numbers: 30% of the estimated 380,000 sharps injuries and
needlesticks that occur in health care happen in the OR; and sutures
(43%), scalpels (17%), and syringes (12%) account for most sharps-relat-
1
1 8 • O U T PA T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 1 7
Safety
Mary Pat Gilligan, DNP, CNOR, NEA-BC
• NEUTRAL ZONE You create a hands-free neutral zone that minimizes injuries when the OR team places and retrieves sharp
instruments on a brightly colored instrument tray.
Pamela
Bevelhymer,
RN,
BSN
