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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Hyun Kim, MS¹, Angela K. Laramie, MPH², David Kriebel, ScD¹, and Letitia Davis, ScD². (1) Work Environment, University of Massachusetts Lowell, One University Ave, Kitson 200, Lowell, MA 01854, 978-934-4852, kimi235@gmail.com, (2) Occupational Health Surveillance Program, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, 250 Washington Street, 6th floor, Boston, MA 02108

Massachusetts requires hospitals to report sharps injuries to inform prevention strategies. Sharps injuries (SI) are best expressed as rates; however the appropriate denominator for SI rates is a subject of debate. A variety of denominators, such as occupied beds, licensed beds, full-time equivalent workers (FTEs), number of patients, number of medical procedures and number of devices used in calculating sharps injury rates. Uncertainty about the best denominator has led to confusion about how hospitals can use SI rates in targeting risk reduction. We investigated the effect of the above 5 denominators on the relative ranking of a sample of 68 acute hospitals by their SI rates. A total of 3,064 SI was reported from 68 acute hospitals in 2002. The overall mean SI rates were: 18/100 licensed beds, 30/100 occupied beds, 56/1,000 FTEs, 11/10,000 patients, and 20/10,000 medical procedures. Using these 5 different denominators to calculate alternative SI rates resulted in dramatic differences in the relative ranking of hospitals. For example, the top ranked (highest SI rate) hospital using the rate of SI/10,000 patients was second to last when the rate was SI/1,000 FTEs. Correlation coefficients were only moderate (ranging from 0.46 to 0.89) between rank orders based on alternative denominators. The choice of denominators had a large effect on the relative SI rates when comparing hospitals, and probably for different areas of the same hospital. Thus a common denominator for SI rates is needed so that hospitals can have consistent and reliable measures of relative performance in risk reduction.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will learn the importance of choosing the proper denominator when calculating sharps injury rates. They will learn how a state health department uses rate calculations in injury surveillance.

Keywords: Health Care Workers, Occupational Surveillance

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation