A new federal law, signed by President Clinton Nov. 6, requires health care employers to implement procedures to prevent accidental needlesticks and other sharps injuries among health care workers. Under the new law, dental offices, hospitals, and other health care employers must annually review new technologies and device that may reduce employee exposure to bloodborne diseases. Employers must involve employees whose job duties put them at risk of exposure to bloodborne diseases in the annual evaluation and selection of safer Medical devices. Any devices that are found to be 'commercially available and effective' must be incorporated into the practices. The office's annual review of devices and instruments engineered for safety, such as self-sheathing safety needles, must be recorded in the office's exposure control plan.
Most dental offices are likely to be exempt from a second recordkeeping requirement.
Specifically, employers with 10 or more workers must maintain a sharps injury log to track injuries and help identify high risk devices and work areas under the new law. Small businesses, those with fewer than 10 employees, are exempt from this requirement, and do not have to maintain a sharps injury log. The bill moved surprisingly fast from introduction in the House and Senate to the president's desk for signature in just seven weeks. It is unclear at this point how state and federal laws will interact. Typically, states are required to enact regulations that are at least as effective as federal OSHA's.