PHLEBOTOMISTS SAFETY PRACTICES - A COLLEGE-OF-AMERICAN-PATHOLOGISTS Q-PROBES STUDY OF 683 INSTITUTIONS

We report on phlebotomists' safety practices in 683 institutions parti cipating in the College of American Pathologists Q-Probes program. Par ticipants inspected 38 357 phlebotomy tourniquets and 31 952 blood col lection tube holders in use and found 2098 tourniquets and 2966 holder s visibly contaminated with blood. In 67.8% of the institutions, at le ast one tourniquet or collection tube holder was contaminated. Needles tick injuries reported by phlebotomists during 1990 through 1992 were analyzed from approximately 11 million inpatient venipuncture procedur es. These injuries ranged between 9.2 and 9.8 needlesticks per 100 000 venipunctures per year. Over 99% of the participants had a policy pre venting recapping of needles, 45% discarded tourniquets when contamina ted with blood, and 3.3% routinely assigned tourniquets to specific pa tients. Between 1990 and 1992, increasing frequencies of phlebotomists using gloves, replacing gloves between each inpatient phlebotomy, and handwashing after degloving were found. We cite the lack of complianc e of handwashing between glove changes as suggesting need for regulato ry rereview.