To help healthcare workers improve patient safety, the Safe Injection Practices Coalition (SIPC) is launching a new educational video for U.S. healthcare providers that is a straight-to-the-point, 10-minute lesson on safe injection practices.
The video is targeted to healthcare providers who regularly administer or supervise injections and is about their responsibility to protect patients from healthcare-associated infections. The video is based on evidence-based and common sense safe injection practices from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Recent outbreaks and patient notifications show the need for continued training about unsafe injection practices.
The 10-minute video promotes safe injection practices by showing healthcare providers working in situations where injections are given. By dispelling common misperceptions, such as the belief that it is safe to administer medication from single-dose vials to multiple patients, the video discusses basic, evidence-based precautions, that must be used at all times to protect patients and prevent disease transmission due to unsafe injection practices.
"One infection due to unsafe injection practices is unacceptable," says Dr. Michael Bell, deputy director for infection control at CDC and narrator of the video. "Every healthcare provider has the responsibility to ensure that all injections given to patients are safe, and we hope that this video will help make that happen."
Dr. Evelyn McKnight, Au.D., president and co-founder of the Hepatitis Outbreaks National Organization for Reform (HONOReform) Foundation, and a SIPC member who is featured in the video, was battling a recurrence of breast cancer when she became one of 99 Nebraska cancer patients to be infected with hepatitis C virus because her healthcare providers reused syringes to access a shared bag of saline.
"By addressing the urgent need for education and heightened awareness about safe injection practices, we hope to avoid further tragedies," says McKnight. "Through this and other Coalition-led educational activities, we hope to make outbreaks due to syringe reuse 'never' events. No patient should ever have to worry about contracting a disease while seeking medical care or treatment."
The video is part of the One & Only Campaign, a national public health education and awareness initiative developed by the SIPC. SIPC is comprised of patient advocacy organizations, foundations, provider associations and industry partners, together with CDC, and has united to halt disease transmission caused by unsafe injection practices in United States healthcare facilities. The campaign name refers to the importance of healthcare personnel using "one needle, one syringe, only one time" to protect patients from bloodborne viruses and other pathogens.
Since 1999, more than 125,000 Americans have received letters alerting them of potential exposure to infection with hepatitis viruses or human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) due to unsafe injection practices such as the reuse of syringes, according to CDC.
