Arkansas Hospitals: Members of Not-For-Profit Multi-Hospital Systems

*Affiliate Hospital **A joint venture between St. Vincenet Health System and HEALTHSOUTH ***Managed Hospital

Arkansas Hospitals: Investor Owned and/or Managed Hospitals

* A partnership arrangement ** QHR manages these non-profit hospitals *** A joint venture between Tenet Healthcare and St. Vincent Health System

Advice On Sharps Safety

Early in April, Dateline NBC aired a story about the use of safety needles in hospitals and health systems. At the heart of the story was whether the country's hospitals should be required to provide new types of needles, syringes, or "sharps" that could help reduce injuries and the risk for healthcare workers of contracting such diseases as hepatitis or HIV. The program followed recent interest in sharps safety by the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other national groups. Also, bills to mandate the use of safety needles have been introduced in state legislatures in at least five states.

American Hospital Association (AHA) chief operating officer Dr. Jonathan T. Lord was interviewed for the Dateline program and said hospitals and health systems are working to ensure their medical equipment and instruments are safe for patients and workers. According to the AHA, there are certain points hospitals and health systems should address in communicating with the public about needle safety:

• Hospitals must meet the specific needs of their patients when it comes to needles, syringes, and other sharps. For example, a different type of needle may be used for a child than for an adult patient. OSHA has recognized that there is no "one size fits all" solution to sharps injury prevention.
  
  
• Employee safety is a critical issue to hospitals, which have a strong record of promoting worker safety. That fact is illustrated by hospital efforts aimed at reducing hepatitis among healthcare workers. Those efforts, coupled with a hepatitis B vaccine, resulted in the number of healthcare workers infected with hepatitis B dropping from a high of 17,000 in 1983 to 400 today. On the issue of sharps safety, hospitals have tried to educate workers about safe use and disposal of needles, syringes, and other sharps. Most hospitals have added special containers to every patient's room to dispose of used needles.
  
  
• Hospitals carefully evaluate the effectiveness of their equipment-both for the safety of patients and protection of workers. OSHA requires hospitals to review on an ongoing basis the feasibility of adopting more advanced technologies and equipment, and hospitals must make those decisions based on the best interest of the patient and the worker.

Distribution of Arkansas Hospitals By Bed Size, Location and Ownership, 1999