Needles and sharps - vital safety precautions
By David Waters, Managing Director CHIS and PrimeCare Insurance
December 16, 2011
This is one of those accidents that just should never happen.
A carer had been helping a diabetic resident administer their insulin. The needle they used was safely put into a paper seal and should have been discarded in the sharps box - it wasn't. Instead it was left on the resident's bed.
Another carer sustained a needle stick injury whilst changing the resident's bed. They picked up what they thought was a piece of white paper but it was the blood sugar test needle.
The carer, who had not been warned of the needle somewhere in the room, sustained the injury along with the understandable emotional trauma of having been infected with a blood borne disease.
The care home had to admit liability due to an employee's negligence and hold a reserve of £11,500.
Lesson
Thankfully, no disease has been evidenced to date, but the trauma has been phenomenal and has had repercussions within the carer's family too.
Some form of communication between the carers would have been better than none and it would take little for a care business to implement a simple protocol for these situations.
There is no doubt the first carer who helped the resident with their insulin should have made sure the needle was safely and properly discarded. The fact that they thought or assumed she had is simply not a good enough defence.
The lesson is simple - manage the risk as it presents itself. When dealing with all sharps, make sure your employees dispose of them carefully - be certain they have done so. If you are in any doubt, put the room into quarantine and ask for help to thoroughly search the room for the sharp. Do not allow the room to be used until you confirm it is safe to do so - no exceptions.
At this writing, the position is the care home's insurers have no choice other than to admit liability. There simply is no defence. The care home operators will now have a liability claim against its previously good name and it was all so easily avoided.