The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard is a standard set by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Standard) that sets established standards in order to protect healthcare workers and others who work with bloodborne pathogens to reduce the chances of them getting infected by these pathogens. Learn more about what the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard is and how it protects workers below.
What Does the Standard Involve?
The Bloodborne Pathogens Standard covers all items and practices related to healthcare workers who work with bloodborne pathogens. This includes such items and practices as work practice and engineering controls, recordkeeping, hazard training and communication, exposure control plans, post-exposure follow-up, universal precautions, hepatitis B vaccinations, and more.
This standard must be followed by companies and organizations whose workers work with blood and other potentially infectious materials so that the workers have a greater degree of protection while working with them and specific procedures are in place in the event of an accident involving the blood or other material so that a worker is less likely to contract a disease from coming into contact with blood or other material.
How Does the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act Relate to This Standard?
This Act became law on November 6, 2000 and was enacted to introduce safer medical devices that either had no needles or added safety devices to cover these needles after use so that there was less chance of infection from a used needle. Additionally, this act required a log to be recorded for such accidents that occurred in the workplace. The act also led to healthcare workers having the ability to formulate better engineering and work practice controls in order to limit these types of accidents from occurring in the workplace.
Sharp Fluidics provides product offerings to help ensure the Bloodborne Pathogens Standard is followed in the workplace. Learn more about this and our other product offerings by scheduling a consultation.
