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Differences in Percutaneous Injury Patterns in A Multi-Hospital System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Hilary M. Babcock  and
Victoria Fraser
Hilary M. Babcock*
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
Victoria Fraser
Affiliation:
Infectious Disease Division, Department of Internal Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, Missouri
*
Campus Box 8051, 660 South Euclid Ave., St. Louis, MO 63110
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Abstract

Objective:

Determine differences in patterns of percutaneous injuries (PIs) in different types of hospitals.

Design:

Case series of injuries occurring from 1997 to 2001.

Setting:

Large midwestern healthcare system with a consolidated occupational health database from 9 hospitals, including rural and urban, community and teaching (1 pediatric, 1 adult) facilities, ranging from 113 to 1,400 beds.

Participants:

Healthcare workers injured between 1997 and 2001.

Results:

Annual injury rates for all hospitals decreased during the study period from 21 to 16.5/100 beds (chi-square for trend = 22.7; P = .0001). Average annual injury rates were higher at larger hospitals (22.5 vs 9.5 Pis/100 beds; P = .0001). Among small hospitals, rural hospitals had higher rates than did urban hospitals (14.87 vs 8.02 PIs/100 beds; P = .0143). At small hospitals, an increased proportion of injuries occurred in the emergency department (13.7% vs 8.6%; P = .0004), operating room (32.3% vs 25.4%; P = .0002), and ICU (12.3% vs 9.4%; P = .0225), compared with large hospitals. Rural hospitals had higher injury rates in the radiology department (7.7% vs 2%; P = .0015) versus urban hospitals. Injuries at the teaching hospitals occurred more commonly on the wards (28.8% vs 24%; P = .0021) and in ICUs (11.4% vs 7.8%; P = .0006) than at community hospitals. Injuries involving butterfly needles were more common at pediatric versus adult hospitals (15.8% vs 6.5%; P = .0001). The prevalence of source patients infected with HIV and hepatitis C was higher at large hospitals.

Conclusions:

Significant differences exist in injury rates and patterns among different types of hospitals. These data can be used to target intervention strategies.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology , Volume 24 , Issue 10 , October 2003 , pp. 731 - 736
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America 2003

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