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Create a plan to reduce bloodborne pathogen exposure

Ambulatory Safety Monitor, May 12, 2004

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To reduce your facility's risk of occupational exposure to bloodborne pathogens, your infection-control policies and practices should include a written exposure-control plan.

Make a copy of the plan accessible to employees and make sure they are aware of the plan and know where to find a copy of it. JCAHO surveyors might ask about your bloodborne-pathogen policy, so make sure you define who needs to be covered by the policy.

Your policy should outline how you will protect the following people:

• Physicians, physician assistants, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other healthcare employees in clinics and physicians' offices
• Employees of clinical and diagnostic laboratories
• Housekeepers or personnel in hospital laundries or commercial laundries who service healthcare or public-safety institutions
• Employees in blood or tissue banks and plasma centers who collect, transport, and test blood
• Employees in freestanding clinics or clinics in industrial, educational, and correctional facilities (i.e., those who collect blood and clean and dress wounds)
• Employees assigned to provide emergency first aid
• Dentists, dental hygienists, dental assistants, and dental laboratory technicians
• Employees handling regulated waste
• Medical-equipment service and repair personnel

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