If It Has a Point Or a Cutting Edge, It Is a Sharp

SHARPS INSERVICE

If it has a point or a cutting edge, it is a sharp.

Needles, lancets, butterflies come to mind quickly, but remember that suture scissors and staples and staple removers are also sharps. Broken glass lab tubes, or lab tubes with blood in them that are not going to the lab (discard tubes) are also considered sharps.

Never recap needles.

Safety needles are available for most uses. If the needle is not a safety needle (does not have a sheath to slide over the needle after use) then immediate disposal in a sharps container is required.

Caution should be used when handling these items.

A sharps container should be in close proximity for use when drawing blood or giving an injection. A barrier should be used to place removed staples, the staple remover, or removed sutures and suture scissors, then transfer the staples, remover or suture scissors to a sharps container as well. The sutures should be disposed of in the sharps container; while not sharp, they are contaminated and need a biohazard disposal.

Sharps containers need to be placed on a barrier when taken into the home.

The container also needs to be disinfected with the approved barriers prior to leaving the patient’s home.

Sharps containers should remain closed when not in use.

Close the container without locking it between uses. Once locked, a container should not be pried open; doing so removes its ability to protect against injury or contamination.

When full, sharps containers should be returned to the office.

DO NOT BRING full containers into any office; the proper disposal area is outside the office, in a proper receptacle. At the Carmel office, this area is in the garage, and by calling the office when you arrive the front desk will send someone down to help access the storage area. WE DO NOT PROCESS FULL SHARPS CONTAINERS FROM PATIENTS.

Sharps containers can be obtained from Supplies.