Abstract
The Jichi Medical University Hospital has designed “a cart for supporting procedures for vessel puncture” that is equipped with incisive blood vessel puncture devices and a ‘sharps’ disposal container, in order to prevent needlestick injuries that occur with the failure to provide a ‘sharps’ disposal container at the patient’s bedside, and introduced the cart for clinical use in 2010. The total number of cart placements, total number of reported needlestick injuries, and number of incidents that occurred with failure to provide a ‘sharps’ disposal container at the patient’s bedside were examined during the period from 2007 to 2013, and the effects of the cart introduction were evaluated in reducing the frequency of needlestick injury incidents. The total reported number of needlestick injuries remained the same before and after the cart introduction. However, the number of incidents that occurred with failure to provide a ‘sharps’ disposal container at the patient’s bedside reduced significantly (p<0.01) with the introduction of the cart. A negative correlation was observed between the total number of cart placements and the number of incidents associated with failure to provide a ‘sharps’ disposal container (correlation function, r=−0.83; p<0.05). Introduction of the cart for supporting procedures for vessel puncture would be beneficial for facilities that report a high number of needlestick injury incidents due to the failure to provide a ‘sharps’ disposal container at the patient’s bedside.
