Needlestick Protocol

The goal of this process:

• quickly and safely treat the injured staff member
• injured staff member MUST be sent to Concentra clinic ASAP(especially if patient is high-risk for HIV or unknown risk)
• if needle/instrument was contaminated with a patient's blood - inform patient, get their contact info (confirm contact info is correct)

"Run" this checklist (so you can fill out fields) - use green button to the upper right of your screen now.

Then Re-name this checklist with the staff member's name and today's date:

• e.g. "Todd Minars - 1/12/2019"

1. Stop work and check if the person is okay.
   -> If they are in danger, move them away.
2. Call 911 if the injury is serious (e.g., unconsciousness, heavy bleeding, fractures).

Treat the wound:

• Immediately wash the wound with soap and water. Let the water run over it and let it bleed for a few moments to flush out the wound. 
• Dress the wound.
• Tell a supervisor or manager ASAP.

Send staff to Concentra clinic IMMEDIATELY:
- To be evaluated and possibly treated
- To have a post-accident drug and alcohol test

They don’t make appointments- walk ins only!

Employee should take to the clinic the below:
*NO Chain of Custody form needed*

1. Concentra - VitalMD Subsidiaries - Employer Authorization for Initial Treatment form
2. Picture ID
3. And Pharmacy card

 At Concentra, the employee should state that they are there for:

• a 10-panel Post Accident drug screen (urine) and a Breathalyzer Alcohol test for post-accident
• initial medical treatment under Workers Comp

How to complete forms:

• Complete the Concentra - VitalMD Subsidiaries - Employer Authorization for Initial Treatment form
     -> Complete the top sections
     -> Write the employees’ information on the left-hand side
     -> Write the LLC's info on the right-hand side
• Client company name = LLC name and address. Authorized by = name of Manager

Concentra will provide the employee with a work status report.  It is the employee’s responsibility to provide a copy of the work status report from Concentra to the Office Manager.

Concentra
17601 NW 2nd Avenue
Miami , FL  33169
Phone: 305.770.4500

Hours of operation are:
Monday – Friday 8:00 am - 6:00 pm
Saturday 10:00 am - 3:00 pm

If Concentra clinic is closed - send staff member to ER.

• At ER they can use their health insurance (save receipts to submit to Worker's Comp & Femwell HR ) for reimbursement.
• Will still need to go to Concentra (after ER) within 24 hours for drug and alcohol testing.

If the injury was a needlestick injury from a contaminated needle (aka - used needle)

Inform the patient of the situation:

• record their information on form below
• appeal to their kindness when asking them to get bloodwork in a timely manner (to give our injured staff member peace of mind.) 
• we will give them a lab slip (Quest or Labcorp)

Patient can use their insurance for lab test:

• (if the patient does receive a bill from the lab, our office will reimburse them)

Tests to check off on Lab Slip:

• Acute Hepatitis Panel
• Hep B Surface Antibody
• Hep B Surface Antigen
• HCV ab w/ reflex to Ab Verification
• HIV -1/0/2, 4th Generation

See examples of correctly filled lab slips below:

Lapcorp:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1D8zLrSpFqbqTrZ8G8Gq_qEpIU47L2Q4c/view?usp=sharing

Quest:  https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DM1HwAiau_2S8T2ozfidHMQOIJQdyZyq/view?usp=sharing

Report the incident to Femwell:

• Contact HR - Norraine Alicea from Femwell at 305-273-4641 ext 9253 or email her at [email protected]

All incidents need to be reported ASAP.  Our practice can be fined by the state for late reporting of a worker's comp incident.

She will ask for the following forms:

Employee's Statement of Acknowledgement Form

Employer's Report of Work Related Injury

Work Status Report:

• ***Concentra will provide the employee with a work status report. It is the employee’s responsibility to provide a copy of the work status report from Concentra to you.
• This needs to be emailed to Norranie [email protected]
• The employee will have follow up appointments at Concentra, each appointment will have their own work status report that will need to be sent to Norranie.

Review this process:

• check links and accuracy of phone numbers and contacts etc...
• simplify, improve, or automate the process wherever you can

Review "needle-sticks" with MA's:

• drill them on how to handle a needle stick
• walk them through this process
• review stories of how previous needlesticks happened (so we can learn from them and prevent repeats)

Previous Needle-Stick stories:

• Tammy - stuck when banging the sharps container to settle contents (and needle inside pierced the container)
• Taylor - stuck when dropping syringe in sharps container - it popped back out and stuck her
• Nayra - stuck when cleaning up a procedure tray - gathered up everything to throw away and a syringe was still hiding under some gauze