Report Title:

Health Care Workers; Needlestick Injury Prevention

 

Description:

Requires director of health, in conjunction with a special advisory committee, to propose rules to minimize the risk of needlestick injuries to health care workers. (SD1)

 

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

61

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

S.D. 1

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO NEEDLESTICK INJURY PREVENTION.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that health care workers are in danger of contracting serious or even fatal diseases as a result of being stuck by needles or cut by other contaminated sharp instruments. It has been estimated by the centers for disease control and prevention that between six hundred thousand and one million needlestick injuries occur each year in health care settings. A variety of health care workers are at risk, but studies show that nurses sustain a majority of these injuries.

There are at least twenty bloodborne pathogens that can be transmitted by needlesticks, including HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C. Despite improvements in the treatment of HIV, most health care workers who become infected with it will eventually develop AIDS. In addition to the health effects that can result from needlesticks and other injuries, there are also psychological and other adverse consequences.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that between sixty-two and eighty-eight per cent of sharps injuries can potentially be prevented by the use of safer medical devices. Needlestick and other sharps-related injuries, which can cause occupational bloodborne pathogens exposure, remain an important public health concern.

The United States Congress recently passed the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act amending the 1991 standard set by the occupational safety and health administration. Additionally, federal rules adopted on January 18, 2001, will become effective April 18, 2001, and require employers to maintain a sharps injury log that contains certain minimum information. However, this legislature finds that Hawaii should require additional information in the sharps injury log to fully protect nurses and other health care workers from needlestick injuries.

The purpose of this Act is to protect nurses and other health care worker through the collection of additional information in the sharps injury log, which employers are required to maintain.

SECTION 2. (a) In addition to complying with the requirements imposed under 29 Code of Federal Regulations Section 1910(h)(5) regarding the sharps injury log, the director shall require employers who are required to maintain records for employees with occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens to include in the sharps injury log the following:

(1) The job classification of the exposed worker;

(2) The procedure that the exposed worker was performing at the time of the incident; and

(3) Any suggestion by the injured employee as to whether or how protective mechanisms or work practice controls could be used to prevent such injuries.

(b) There shall be an exemption from this Act for a period of three years from the effective date of this Act for the use of a drug or biologic that is in a pre-filled syringe and is approved for commercial distribution or investigational use by the Federal Food and Drug Administration.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.