GAO
analyzes safe needle costs
While the hard costs and benefits of using safety needles remains difficult
to pin down, adoption of new safe needle technology already appears
to be cost-wise in many cases, according to a new government report.
A
Government Accounting Office analysis said a projected decrease in treatment
costs for healthcare workers infected by needlesticks may be justification
enough to adopt safe needle technology.
Other costs that could not be precisely calculated, such as emotional
distress and lower liability costs, were not added in. But they would
tilt the scorecard in favor of safe technology, the report's authors
wrote. They included numerous cost projection charts in their analysis.
Safety
needles may cost two to three times as much as standard devices, experts
say.
Injury
reduction
The
report said about 69,000 of the estimated 234,000 needlesticks that
occur annually in hospitals could be prevented if needles with safety
features were used.
Rep.
Pete Stark (D-CA) requested the study for a proposed federal needlestick
safety bill. That legislation became moot on Nov. 6 when President Clinton
signed into law a subsequently introduced needlestick safety bill.
A full copy of the report can be found at www.gao.gov/new.items/
d0160r.pdf.
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