Summary
Topic: Safe Needles
Sponsors: Representatives Woodward and DeWeese
Date of Summary: June 15, 2000
House Bill 4621 adds Section 24A to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act by requiring an employer with 15 or more employees with occupational exposure to needles to use a needleless system or a needle with engineered sharps injury protection. An exception is made for circumstances in which the technology does not promote employee or patient safety or interferes with a medical procedure.
A covered employer is required to do all of the following:
Establish an evaluation committee to conduct an evaluation of needless systems and needles with engineered sharps injury protections. At least half of the members are required to be frontline health care workers from a variety of occupational classifications and departments.
Establish written exposure control plans for selection of appropriate needleless and safe needle technologies. Exposure control plans are required to be updated at least annually and reviewed by the evaluation committee.
Record information concerning accidental needle sticks and other needle exposure in an injury log. The employer is required to notify the Occupational Health Standards Commission and the Department of Community Health of any entry made in the log. The bill requires that the information in the injury log include the date and time of the accidental needle stick or exposure, the type and brand of needle involved, and a full description of the incident.
The Occupational Health Standards Commission and the Department of Community Health are required to jointly compile and maintain a list of existing needless systems and needles with engineered sharps injury protection and to make that list available to assist employers in complying with the requirements of the bill.
Pre-filled syringes approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration are exempt from the requirements of the bill for 2 years.
House Bill 4780 adds Section 24B to the Michigan Occupational Safety and Health Act. It requires the Departments of Consumer and Industry Services and Community Health to jointly conduct a study of practices and procedures in the health care workplace related to needle safety. The Department of Consumer and Industry Services is also required to provide training opportunities to employers on needle safety through the department's Safety Education Training Program. The new section is repealed two years after going into effect.
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