Tenth Anniversary of the U.S. Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act: Mapping Progress, Charting a Future Path When the Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act (NSPA) was signed into law on November 6, 2000, the United States (U.S.) became the first country in the world to require the use of safety-engineered sharp medical devices designed to protect healthcare workers from sharps injuries and bloodborne disease transmission. Ten years later, it is time to assess the impact of the NSPA, identify remaining gaps in sharps safety technology, and chart a future path towards eliminating needlesticks as an occupational risk in U.S. healthcare facilities-identified as one of seven """"""""healthcare safety challenges"""""""" by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2001. In order to meet that goal, continued vigilance is necessary to ensure that effective safety technology is both available and consistently used in hospitals and outpatient settings nationwide. The International Healthcare Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia proposes to hold a conference in 2010 to explore these important issues. Stakeholders from a variety of sectors-healthcare, academia, government, and industry-will be invited to actively participate in shaping an agenda for the next decade that is both national and international in scope. The NSPA has had an impact far beyond the U.S.: it has become a model for sharps safety legislation in other countries, and the European Union is poised to pass an equivalent standard that will greatly accelerate transition to safety technology there. Over the last decade and a half, U.S. medical device companies pioneered the development and marketing of safety-engineered medical devices, driving demand for such products in countries worldwide. The conference will provide an opportunity to discuss the future of the global safety device market, and the hurdles that need to be overcome to bring this potentially life-saving technology to health workers in the poorest countries, who are most at risk of occupational infection. Deliverables from the conference will include a scientific paper reviewing the impact of the NSPA and offering recommendations for achieving further reductions in U.S. needlestick injury rates;a white paper with a strategic plan for extending the benefits of sharps injury technology to health workers in economically challenged regions of the world;and a conference website that includes links to speaker presentations and key recommendations.
The conference will explore successes and challenges over the last decade in addressing a serious occupational risk for healthcare workers: needlestick injuries and occupational blood exposures. More specifically, the conference will examine how the U.S. regulatory and legislative process was successfully used to target a significant public health issue, and the impact of the resulting legislation both in the U.S. and in countries worldwide.
