[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1140 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1140

To require the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations to eliminate or 
  minimize the significant risk of needlestick injury to health care 
                                workers.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 26, 1999

 Mrs. Boxer (for herself and Mr. Reid) introduced the following bill; 
     which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, 
                     Education, Labor, and Pensions

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To require the Secretary of Labor to issue regulations to eliminate or 
  minimize the significant risk of needlestick injury to health care 
                                workers.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Health Care Worker Needlestick 
Prevention Act''.

SEC. 2. REQUIREMENTS.

    (a) Bloodborne Pathogens Standard.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), the 
        Secretary of Labor, acting through the Occupational Safety and 
        Health Administration, shall amend the bloodborne pathogens 
        standard to require that--
                    (A) employers utilize needleless systems and sharps 
                with engineered sharps injury protections in their work 
                sites to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens; 
                and
                    (B) to assist employers in meeting the requirement 
                of subparagraph (A), non-managerial direct care health 
                care workers of employers participate in the 
                identification and evaluation of needleless systems and 
                sharps with engineered sharps injury protections.
            (2) Exception.--The bloodborne pathogens standard 
        requirements of paragraph (1) shall apply to any employer, 
        except where the employer demonstrates, to the Secretary's 
        satisfaction, that--
                    (A) there are circumstances in the employer's work 
                facility in which the needleless systems and sharps 
                with engineered sharps injury protections do not 
                promote employee safety, interfere with patient safety, 
                or interfere with the success of a medical procedure; 
                or
                    (B) the needleless systems and sharps with 
                engineered sharps injury protections required are not 
                commercially available to the employer.
    (b) Standard Content.--For carrying out the requirement of 
subsection (a)(1) for needleless systems and sharps with engineered 
sharps injury protections, the amendment required by subsection (a) 
shall include the following:
            (1) Exposure control plan.--The employer shall include in 
        their exposure control plan an effective procedure for 
        identifying and selecting existing needleless systems and 
        sharps with engineered sharps injury protections and other 
        methods of preventing bloodborne pathogens exposure.
            (2) Sharps injury log.--In addition to the recording of all 
        injuries from contaminated sharps on the OSHA Occupational 
        Injuries and Illnesses 200 log or its equivalent, the employer 
        shall maintain a separate contaminated sharps injury log 
        containing the following information (to the extent such 
        information is known to the employer) with regard to each 
        exposure incident:
                    (A) Date and time of the exposure incident.
                    (B) Type and brand of sharp involved in the 
                exposure incident.
                    (C) Description of the exposure incident which 
                shall include--
                            (i) job classification of the exposed 
                        employee;
                            (ii) department or work area where the 
                        exposure incident occurred;
                            (iii) the procedure that the exposed 
                        employee was performing at the time of the 
                        incident;
                            (iv) how the incident occurred;
                            (v) the body part involved in the exposure 
                        incident;
                            (vi) if the sharp had engineered sharps 
                        injury protections--
                                    (I) whether the protective 
                                mechanism was activated, and whether 
                                the injury occurred before the 
                                protective mechanism was activated, 
                                during activation of the mechanism, or 
                                after activation of the mechanism, if 
                                applicable; and
                                    (II) whether the employee received 
                                training on how to use the device 
                                before use, and a brief description of 
                                the training;
                            (vii) if the sharp had no engineered sharps 
                        injury protections, the injured employee's 
                        opinion as to whether and how such a mechanism 
                        could have prevented the injury, as well as the 
                        basis for the opinion; and
                            (viii) the employee's opinion about whether 
                        any other engineering, administrative, or work 
                        practice control could have prevented the 
                        injury as well as the basis for the opinion.
            (3) Training.--A requirement that all direct care health 
        care workers shall be provided adequate training on the use of 
        all needleless systems and sharps with engineered sharps injury 
        protections which they may be required to use.

SEC. 3. NATIONAL CLEARINGHOUSE ON SAFER NEEDLE TECHNOLOGY.

    (a) In General.--The Director of the National Institute for 
Occupational Safety and Health shall establish and maintain a national 
database on existing needleless systems and sharps with engineered 
sharps injury protections.
    (b) Evaluation Criteria.--The Director shall develop a set of 
evaluation criteria for use by employers, employees, and other persons 
when they are evaluating and selecting needleless systems and sharps 
with engineered sharps injury protections.
    (c) Training.--The Director shall develop a model training 
curriculum to train employers, employees, and other persons on the 
process of evaluating needleless systems and sharps with engineered 
sharps injury protections and shall (to the extent feasible) provide 
technical assistance to persons who request such assistance.
    (d) Monitoring.--The Director shall establish a national system to 
collect comprehensive data on needlestick injuries to health care 
workers, including data on mechanisms to analyze and evaluate 
prevention interventions in relation to needlestick injury occurrence. 
In carrying out its duties under this subsection, the National 
Institute for Occupational Safety and Health shall have access to 
information recorded by employers on the sharps injury log as required 
by section 2(b)(2).
    (e) Authorization.--There is authorized to be appropriated 
$15,000,000 to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health 
to carry out the requirements of this section.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    For purposes of this Act:
            (1) Bloodborne pathogens.--The term ``bloodborne 
        pathogens'' means pathogenic microorganisms that are present in 
        human blood and can cause disease in humans. These pathogens 
        include hepatitis B virus, hepatitis C virus, and human 
        immunodeficiency virus.
            (2) Contaminated.--The term ``contaminated'' means the 
        presence or the reasonably anticipated presence of blood or 
        other potentially infectious materials on an item or surface.
            (3) Direct care health care worker.--The term ``direct care 
        health care worker'' means an employee responsible for direct 
        patient care with potential occupational exposure to sharps 
        related injuries.
            (4) Employer.--The term ``employer'' means each employer 
        having an employee with occupational exposure to human blood or 
        other material potentially containing bloodborne pathogens.
            (5) Engineered sharps injury protections.--The term 
        ``engineered sharps injury protections'' means--
                    (A) a physical attribute built into a needle device 
                used for withdrawing body fluids, accessing a vein or 
                artery, or administering medications or other fluids, 
                that effectively reduces the risk of an exposure 
                incident by a mechanism such as barrier creation, 
                blunting, encapsulation, withdrawal, retraction, 
                destruction, or other effective mechanisms; or
                    (B) a physical attribute built into any other type 
                of needle device, or into a nonneedle sharp, which 
                effectively reduces the risk of an exposure incident.
            (6) Needleless system.--The term ``needleless system'' 
        means a device that does not use needles for--
                    (A) the withdrawal of body fluids after initial 
                venous or arterial access is established;
                    (B) the administration of medication or fluids; and
                    (C) any other procedure involving the potential for 
                an exposure incident.
            (7) Sharp.--The term ``sharp'' means any object used or 
        encountered in a health care setting that can be reasonably 
        anticipated to penetrate the skin or any other part of the 
        body, and to result in an exposure incident, including, but not 
        limited to, needle devices, scalpels, lancets, broken glass, 
        broken capillary tubes, exposed ends of dental wires and dental 
        knives, drills, and burs.
            (8) Sharps injury.--The term ``sharps injury'' means any 
        injury caused by a sharp, including cuts, abrasions, or 
        needlesticks.
            (9) Sharps injury log.--The term ``sharps injury log'' 
        means a written or electronic record satisfying the 
        requirements of section 2(b)(2).

SEC. 5. APPLICATION TO MEDICARE HOSPITALS.

    The Secretary of Health and Human Services shall provide by 
regulation that, as a condition of participation under the medicare 
program under title XVIII of the Social Security Act of a hospital that 
is not otherwise subject to the bloodborne pathogens standard amended 
under section 2(a) because it is exempt from regulation by the 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the hospital shall 
comply with the bloodborne pathogen standard amended under section 2(a) 
with respect to any employees of the hospital, effective at the same 
time as such amended standard would have applied to the hospital if it 
had not been so exempt.

SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This Act shall become effective upon the date of its enactment, 
except that the Secretary of Labor shall take the action required by 
section 2 within 1 year of such date.
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