Needle Stick Injuries and Hospital Workers

Health care workers, especially those in hospital settings, are at risk of a wide range of injuries based on the specific requirements of their job. For example, an emergency department nurse will be at risk of types and rates of injuries that differ from custodial workers in hospitals. Even within the same profession, setting can make a difference. For example, nurses in nursing homes and especially memory care facilities are often at risk of injuries due to patient contact that are not nearly as prevalent for nurses in children’s hospitals. Yet the risk of one type of injury that is relatively shared among many types of health care workers, including those in hospitals, is a “sharps” injury or “needle stick” injury.

What are needle stick injuries, how often do they happen, and how can health care workers prevent them? And when they do occur, what do health care workers need to do in order to seek workers’ compensation benefits?

What is a “Sharps” or “Needle Stick” Injury? 

What is a sharps or needle stick injury? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), this is a type of injury understood to be “a penetrating stab wound from a needle, scalpel, or other sharp object that may result in exposure to blood or other bodily fluids.”

How do these injuries happen? The CDC explains that they are “typically the result of using sharp equipment in a fast-paced, stressful, and potentially understaffed environment.” In hospital settings, and especially in emergency departments, “strenuous demands often produce feelings of fatigue, frustration, and occasionally anger,” especially at moments when a health care provider needs a break but cannot take one due to the demands of the job.

Unsafe practices in health care settings can also result in sharps injuries as the CDC clarifies, “such as passing sharps hand-to-hand between team members, placing sharps in an overfilled disposal container, failing to use a safer device, or failing to identify a safer alternative.”

Harms from Sharps Injuries and Workers’ Compensation Coverage 

The most serious type of harm to result from a sharps injury is a health care worker’s exposure to a bloodborne pathogen or other infectious materials, and contracting a dangerous illness such as hepatitis C, hepatitis B, or HIV.

To be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits in Maryland, you will need to show that your injury arose out of and occurred in the course of your employment. A Maryland workers’ compensation lawyer can discuss the specific evidence you will need to show that a sharps or needle stick injury is compensable under Maryland law.

Contact Our Maryland Workers’ Compensation Attorneys for Assistance 

If you were injured while working in a hospital or another health care setting, by a sharps injury or otherwise, it is important to seek legal advice about pursuing workers’ compensation benefits. Many hospital workers who suffer injuries on the job are eligible for compensation that can include medical coverage, lost wages, and disability benefits. One of the experienced Maryland hospital worker injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Steinhardt, Siskind and Lieberman, LLC can speak with you today about your workplace injury and moving forward with your workers’ compensation claim.

Source:

cdc.gov/nora/councils/hcsa/stopsticks/sharpsinjuries.html