There’s life (and death) in the blood…
I’ve been doing medical specimen deliveries now since 1980, and I’ve seen all kinds of spills and accidents. When they happen, a courier can get a bit frightened and if he doesn’t follow the proper procedures, infection can happen that ultimately could lead to death. It’s easy to get into our routine as medical couriers. We get the call for a stat, or we head out on our route, never thinking that today could be the day we have an Exposure Incident.
Several years ago, (before OSHA Regulations were put in place to protect workers from exposure to harmful bloodborne diseases,) I was a courier for a small clinical laboratory in Minneapolis. Our practice was to take patients results into the clinic, and once we handed the results to the lab tech, we would put their specimens into the envelope and go to the vehicle and transfer the blood vials into our cooler. One particular day, I was covering a route where I had several stops in one medical building. I would start at the top floor, go from office to office and work my way through the building. As I was coming up from the basement, I tripped on the 3rd stair from the landing and several blood specimens shot out of the envelope and broke on the landing. Now there’s a bloody mess!
Imagine if I had had no training on using a spill kit, or how to keep others safe from a spill site or not to leave the spill site un-attended. An elderly person or child could have walked into that mess and been exposed and possibly infected. This is the risk that medical couriers across the U.S. take every single day while transporting medical specimens for their lab clients. How many of them have been properly trained? 5%? 10%? 50%? As I visit websites of couriers boasting medical specimen delivery services, I’d say it’s a lower percentage that is properly trained.
On a day like today, Halloween, many people will spend their day watching vampire movies, or zombie apocalypse movies and witness people munching on human flesh, drinking blood, etc., and that without proper education on the dangers inherant in such practices! Is there even an OSHA compliance officer on site to offer the Hepatitis B Vaccine for these folks? I think not. But seriously, read this excerpt from an article about workplace injuries from exposure to bloodborne pathogens:
Telephone interviews were conducted with workers who had been treated in Emergency Departments for potential work-related exposures to BloodbornePathogens in 2000–2002. Respondents were drawn from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. Results Of the 593 interviews, 382 were from hospitals, 51 were from emergency medical service/firefighting (EMS/FF), 86 were from non-hospital healthcare settings (e.g., nursing homes, doctors’ offices, home healthcare providers, etc.), 22 were from law enforcement (including police and correctional facilities), and 52 were from other non-healthcare settings (i.e., schools, hotels, and restaurants). Needlestick/sharps injuries were the primary source of exposure in hospitals and non-hospital healthcare settings. Skin and mucous membrane was the primary route of exposure in EMS/FF. Human bites accounted for a significant portion of the exposures in law enforcement and other non-healthcare settings. In general, workers from non-hospital settings were less likely to use PPE, to have BBP safety training, to be aware of the BBP standards and exposure treatment procedures, and to report or seek treatment for a work-related exposure compared to hospital workers.
Conclusion: This study suggests that each industry group has unique needs that should be addressed. Source: Potential Work-Related Bloodborne Pathogen Exposures by Industry and Occupation in the United States Part II: A Telephone Interview Study. Guang-Xiang Chen and E. Lynn Jenkins So here’s the point: “workers from non-hospital settings were less likely to use PPE, to have BBP safety training, to be aware of the BBP standards and exposure treatment procedures and to report or seek treatment for a work-related exposure compared to hospital workers.” If your courier company is providing courier services to hospitals, blood banks, laboratories, nursing homes, etc., your drivers should be receiving training on a yearly basis and upon hire/contract as to the dangers present in transporting possibly infectious blood and other bodily fluids. Sending them out to service your medical clients without proper training is a dangerous “Trick.”
Integrity Medical Courier Training provides just such training by doing On-Site training sessions including Site Audits and Route Ride Alongs as well as daily Live Webinar Training sessions to train and equip your couriers to safely and effectively pick up and transport and deliver possibly infectious medical products. Properly trained couriers ensures health and safety for your drivers, and the proper delivery of Excellent Patient Care to the patients they serve each and every day. Now that’s a “Treat” for all involved. Contact us today and let Integrity take the fear out of your driver’s daily stat and routed specimen deliveries.
