Keeping Your Sharps Injury Log Current (Even If You Haven’t Had an Injury)
by Gracie Hogue
One thing we often see at the practices during a Mock OSHA Inspection is that the practice’s Sharps Injury Log is blank. This may look great to you because it looks clean and seems to convey the message that there have been no injuries. But OSHA doesn’t see it this way.
If you haven’t had any sharps injuries or needlestick incidents, that’s great! However, you still need to update your Sharps Injury Log. Simply enter the year and “No injuries reported.”
If you have had an injury, this is what to enter in the log:
- Date
- Device used that caused the injury
- Department of the injured employee
- How the incident happened
DO NOT enter specific names of those involved; and that goes for both the employee and the patient.
Why is a Sharps Injury Log important? Our OSHA Manual states about Sharps Injury Logs: “Basically, the Sharps Injury Log serves a tool for Safety Coordinators to determine how injuries are occurring, the kinds of devices that were used, and the situation around the incident. With this information, Safety Coordinators can provide training and necessary changes to reduce the risk of ongoing incidents.”
If you have an OSHA Manual from Modern Practice Solutions, the Sharps Injury Log will be in the Post Exposure Management section of your manual. If you don’t have an OSHA Manual from Modern Practice Solutions and you’re unsure about whether or not you have a Sharps Injury Log, contact us at (931) 232-7738.