Question:
One of my assistants was injured with a minor scratch on her right-hand, when she was cleaning the instruments.
I offered to have her blood work checked by a health care provider, but she refused to go to the medical clinic.
How do I document this?
Answer:
Documentation and Reference Material
(Note: Document names, locations, page numbers, and sections referenced below are all at the time of publishing this article.)
This process and the associated records that must be filled out are available in your Documentation Kit > Exposure Control Plan page 21. The form that must be filled out is called the Employee Exposure Report and that can be found in your Welcome Kit > Documentation Kit > Exposure Forms.
Short answer to your question
An employee may elect to refuse to submit to bloodwork and a healthcare professional follow up. This can be documented in the Employee Exposure Report form cited above. You must provide what is considered "counseling" (ref. 1910.1030(f)(3)(v)) to the employee i.e., explain their rights (right to follow up care, right to blood testing, that this incident will be documented, the risks of HIV, HCV, HBV, self-monitoring of any symptoms, etc.). This information is covered within our bloodborne pathogen module of online training.
A brief review of the exposure incident response protocol
In the event of a possible exposure incident, this is the process:
- Provide initial first aid
- Identify the source individual if possible (if not possible, document this)
- Obtain consent to test the source individual's blood (if possible; if not, document it)
- Offer to have the employee evaluated by a licensed healthcare professional (if refused, document)
- HCP will document their recommendation for treatment, e.g., blood testing, post-exposure prophylaxis (this is documented in an associated form)
- All exposure documentation is to be maintained in the employee's confidential record and kept for 30 years
The detailed process and any associated forms are available in the Exposure Control plan on page 21.
If you would like more information, please refer to this guide.
____
The Real Talk article series includes real customer questions and our answers. Since these are questions directly from actual clinics, practices, hospitals, and businesses, we thought you might have these questions too. We hope that you find this format helpful. Stay tuned for more Real Talk - your question might even be featured!