Percutaneous Injuries before and after the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act

According to this analysis of needlestick injuries in a sample of U.S. hospitals before and after passage of the NSPA in 2000, the number of percutaneous injuries per 100 full-time hospital employees declined after enactment of the legislation. To the Editor: The Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (NSPA) (HR.5178) was signed into law on November 6, 2000. 1 It required employers to provide safety-engineered devices to employees who are at risk for exposure to bloodborne pathogens, to include frontline workers in selecting these devices, to review exposure-control plans at least annually to ensure that they reflect advances in sharps-safety technology, and to maintain sharps-injury logs that specify required details about the injury. The NSPA also mandated that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) revise the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard in 2001, incorporating these requirements. 2 To determine whether the NSPA . . .