-Caveat Lector-
When I heard this report last night I was floored. Why would the tech do
this? Her training would indicate that it can't be ignorance. Lazy? It's
harder to wash a needle then to open a new package. So, what's up with
this?
Hilary
Calif. blood lab patients warned in needle scare
By Greg Frost
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Thousands of patients who had blood drawn at a
California laboratory will be warned to take AIDS and hepatitis tests after
a
technician at the lab admitted she sometimes reused disposable hypodermic
needles, officials said Friday.
Confirming a report in the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper, state health
authorities and Anglo-U.S. drug maker SmithKline Beecham said they were
mailing warnings to at least 3,600 patients in San Mateo and Santa Clara
counties who had blood work performed at a SmithKline clinical lab in Palo
Alto, Calif.
SmithKline fired the unidentified technician, or phlebotomist, after a
colleague saw her reuse a needle on March 22. During an investigation, the
phlebotomist acknowledged reusing certain needles to draw blood from
patients
with veins that were difficult to access.
The phlebotomist, who worked at the lab since June 1, 1997, said she would
wash some used needles with water and hydrogen peroxide -- a mixture that
health officials said could kill some, but not all, blood-borne pathogens.
The state department of health, which was investigating the incident along
with federal and local health authorities, said the risk to patients of
possible infection was ``low'' but not nonexistent.
``Although the risk of infection to anyone who had blood drawn by this
phlebotomist is low, reusing needles in any way is unsafe and a breach of
standard medical practices,'' California Health Officer James Stratton said
in a statement.
State health officials would not discuss the phlebotomist's background but
did say she had worked at between five and 10 other sites before she began
work at the Palo Alto lab. It was not known when the woman began reusing
needles, how often she reused them or if she reused them at any of the
other
facilities, the officials said.
``In some cases she worked under close supervision, which makes it unlikely
she was reusing needles,'' said Lea Brooks, a spokeswoman for the state
health department. ``In other cases she wasn't in the direct line of vision
of a supervisor.''
SmithKline said the technician's safety lapse was ''shocking,'' and added
the
company would pay the costs of running blood tests on patients who had work
done at the lab.
``As a company whose overriding objective is to improve the health of
people
everywhere, we are shocked by this apparent disregard for company
procedures,'' John Okkerse, president of Philadelphia-based SmithKline
Beecham Clinical Laboratories, said in a statement.
``Our first concern is for the health of the patients,'' he said. ``We are
working to determine the risk, if any, the patients face and we will do
whatever is medically appropriate to support them.''
Okkerse said SmithKline had intended to notify patients and their
physicians
in advance of ``a public notification,'' but noted that the story had been
broken by the media before the company could do so.
SmithKline said letters would be sent to all individuals and their
physicians
who had blood drawn at the site, and that free follow-up blood tests would
be
offered to them. The company also said it was establishing a telephone call
center to answer patient inquiries.
SmithKline spokesman Jeremy Heymsfeld described the technician as a ``fully
certified phlebotomist'' and said there was no acceptable explanation for
what she did. ``It was a totally inappropriate action against medical
procedure,'' he said.
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