Excerpts from the Course

There are two key aspects to controlling exposures to contaminated blood and body fluids. First off, you must treat all blood as contaminated, so you will take the necessary precautions to handle it well.

At the same time, you have to ensure proper cleanup and decontamination where needed.

In general, the work practice controls must include regular hand hygiene, the use of safe medical devices, and the proper disposal of sharps. An employer must also have engineering controls in place and these include sharps disposal containers, self-sheathing needles, safer medical devices, such as sharps with engineered sharps injury protections, and needleless systems.

Besides these, employees who have a chance for exposure must wear PPE for additional protection.

There are also specific standards for handling specimens. The OSHA standards state that any container holding specimens must be labeled to indicate the same. Also, all employees who will have contact with the specimens must be trained to handle all specimens with Universal Precautions. If the specimens leave the facility, a label or red color-coding is required.

Secondary containers or bags are only required if the primary container is contaminated on the outside. Also, if the specimen could puncture the primary container, a secondary puncture-resistant container is required. All specimen containers, primary and secondary, must be closed, properly labeled, or color-coded and must prevent leakage.