The cost of needlestick injuries associated with insulin administration

AbstractObjective:To document the costs and the benefits (both in terms of costs averted and of injuries averted) of education sessions and replacement of phlebotomy devices to ensure that needle recapping did not take place.Design:The percentage of recapped needles and the rate of needlestick injuries were evaluated in 1990 and 1997, from a survey of transparent rigid containers in the wards and at the bedside and from a prospective register of all injuries in the workplace. Costs were computed from the viewpoint of the hospital. Positive costs were those of education and purchase of safer phlebotomy devices; negative costs were the prophylactic treatments and follow-up averted by the reduction in injuries.Setting:A 1,050-bed tertiary-care university hospital in the Paris region.Results:Between the two periods, the proportion of needles seen in the containers that had been recapped was reduced from 10% to 2%. In 1990, 127 needlestick (12.7/100,000 needles) and 52 recapping injuries were reported versus 62 (6.4/100,000 needles) and 22 in 1996 and 1997. When the rates were related to the actual number of patients, the reduction was 76 injuries per year. The total cost of information and preventive measures was $325,927 per year. The cost-effectiveness was $4,000 per injury prevented.Conclusion:Although preventive measures taken to ensure reduction of needlestick injuries appear to have been effective (75% reduction in recapping and 50% reduction in injuries), the cost of the safety program was high.

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Estimated Cost of Needlestick Injuries for Six Major Needled Devices

Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology ◽

10.1086/646099 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 11 (11) ◽

pp. 584-588 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

Janine Jagger ◽

Ella H. Hunt ◽

Richard D. Pearson

Keyword(s):

Healthcare Workers ◽

Narrow Range ◽

Health Department ◽

Economic Benefits ◽

Employee Health ◽

Needlestick Injury ◽

Needlestick Injuries ◽

Cost Of Treatment ◽

Needle Stick Injuries ◽

The Cost

AbstractA major factor in the introduction of new products designed to decrease the risk of needlesticks to healthcare workers (HCWs) is whether the increased expense of a safer device is offset by the savings of preventing needlesticks. The itemized costs of needle-stick injuries associated with six major needled devices were estimated and compared to the cost of the devices causing the injuries, based on 1988 dollars. Included was the cost of treatment, prophylaxis and employee health department personnel time. The average cost of needlestick injury was $405, with a narrow range of $390 to $456 for different devices. As a percent of the cost of the devices, needlesticks cost as little as 10% of the cost of the device, for the intravenous (IV) catheter, to as much as 457%, for needles used to connect IV lines. On the average, needlesticks cost 36% of the devices’ cost. These data may be used to weigh the potential economic benefits of safer needle technology or other strategies intended to reduce the incidence of needlesticks.

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Nurse Satisfaction Using Insulin Pens in Hospitalized Patients

The Diabetes Educator ◽

10.1177/0145721709340057 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 35 (5) ◽

pp. 799-809 ◽

Cited By ~ 31

Author(s):

Estella M. Davis ◽

Anne Bebee ◽

LeaAnne Crawford ◽

Chris Destache

Keyword(s):

Community Hospital ◽

Hospitalized Patients ◽

Insulin Administration ◽

Needlestick Injuries ◽

Delivery Method ◽

Nursing Time ◽

Nurse Satisfaction ◽

Patients With Diabetes ◽

Quasi Experimental ◽

Insulin Pens

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate nurse satisfaction using pen devices compared with vials/syringes to administer insulin to hospitalized patients with diabetes. Methods A quasi-experimental 1-group posttest only study design was utilized to distribute a satisfaction survey to 54 registered nurses in a community hospital after implementation of insulin pen devices from July 2005 to May 2006 on 2 medical-surgical floors. Nurses completed a voluntary, anonymous, self-administered, postassessment, investigator-developed survey asking about the number of years practiced as a nurse and experience administering insulin to patients. The survey also asked about insulin administration satisfaction questions comparing insulin pen devices to vials/syringes, and estimated time to teach patients to self-inject insulin using either delivery method during the study period. Results In comparison to vials/syringes, the majority of nurses agreed that insulin pens were more convenient, simple and easy to use, and an overall improvement compared with conventional vials/syringes. There were no insulin-related needlestick injuries using the insulin pens and safety needles. Conclusion Nurses were satisfied with multiple aspects of insulin pens compared with vials/syringes. Implementation of insulin pen devices does not increase nursing time spent to teach patients to self-inject insulin and does not increase insulin-related needlestick injuries.

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The IBM-PC in electron microscopy

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100165525 ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 54 ◽

pp. 612-613

Author(s):

James F. Mancuso

Keyword(s):

Head Start ◽

Image Acquisition ◽

Cost Effective ◽

Financial Applications ◽

Number Of Factors ◽

Instrument Control ◽

The Cost ◽

Training And Support ◽

Control Image ◽

Ibm Pc

IBM PC compatible computers are widely used in microscopy for applications ranging from control to image acquisition and analysis. The choice of IBM-PC based systems over competing computer platforms can be based on technical merit alone or on a number of factors relating to economics, availability of peripherals, management dictum, or simple personal preference.IBM-PC got a strong “head start” by first dominating clerical, document processing and financial applications. The use of these computers spilled into the laboratory where the DOS based IBM-PC replaced mini-computers. Compared to minicomputer, the PC provided a more for cost-effective platform for applications in numerical analysis, engineering and design, instrument control, image acquisition and image processing. In addition, the sitewide use of a common PC platform could reduce the cost of training and support services relative to cases where many different computer platforms were used. This could be especially true for the microscopists who must use computers in both the laboratory and the office.

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New Feasible Concepts of Aberration Correction for Realizing High-Resolution Electron Microscopes

Proceedings, annual meeting, Electron Microscopy Society of America ◽

10.1017/s0424820100179762 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 48 (1) ◽

pp. 202-203

Author(s):

H. Rose

Keyword(s):

Spherical Aberration ◽

Wave Length ◽

Electron Wave ◽

Optical Lens ◽

Resolution Electron ◽

Rotationally Symmetric ◽

Electron Microscopes ◽

The Cost ◽

Imaging Performance ◽

Acceleration Voltage

The imaging performance of the light optical lens systems has reached such a degree of perfection that nowadays numerical apertures of about 1 can be utilized. Compared to this state of development the objective lenses of electron microscopes are rather poor allowing at most usable apertures somewhat smaller than 10-2 . This severe shortcoming is due to the unavoidable axial chromatic and spherical aberration of rotationally symmetric electron lenses employed so far in all electron microscopes.The resolution of such electron microscopes can only be improved by increasing the accelerating voltage which shortens the electron wave length. Unfortunately, this procedure is rather ineffective because the achievable gain in resolution is only proportional to λ1/4 for a fixed magnetic field strength determined by the magnetic saturation of the pole pieces. Moreover, increasing the acceleration voltage results in deleterious knock-on processes and in extreme difficulties to stabilize the high voltage. Last not least the cost increase exponentially with voltage.

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