ArticlesMonitoring adherence to Standard Precautions*,**
Section snippets
Survey design and administration
A 7-page survey was constructed to examine factors likely to be associated with SP compliance. Survey items included methods of education and training, frequency of educational intervention, surveillance for percutaneous injury and mucocutaneous blood exposure, approaches to assessment of SP compliance, and ICP perception of adequacy of employee training for monitoring compliance. After approval by the Institutional Review Board, surveys were mailed to ICPs at all community hospitals and the
Response bias
The organizational characteristics of responding and nonresponding hospitals were quite comparable. However, responding hospitals were less likely to be affiliated with a medical school (18% vs 31%, P <.05), although there are relatively few medical schools in either state. Responders had a slightly lower mean number of annual outpatient visits (69,550 vs 81,360, P <.05).
Descriptive information
There were 149 institutional respondents (62%); 96 from Iowa and 53 from Virginia (72% and 50%, respectively). Although
Discussion
This study is unique in that statewide surveys of community hospitals in Iowa and Virginia were performed, and thus represent the views of ICPs at a large number of institutions. Few studies have considered both organizational context and program factors as potential determinants of increased SP compliance and monitoring.
Our study suggests that institutional program and safety climate factors play an important role in the ICPs’ perception of HCWs’ training adequacy to monitor coworkers’
Acknowledgements
We appreciate the important contributions of Larry Murphy, PhD, James Grosch, PhD, and Linda Martin, PhD, of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in completing the study and of ICPs in Iowa and Virginia for providing these data.
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Partially supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health Cooperative Agreement, No. U60/CCU 172173.
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Reprint requests: Bradley N. Doebbeling, MD, MSc, SE 625 GH, Department of Internal Medicine, The University of Iowa College of Medicine, 200 Hawkins Dr, Iowa City, IA 52242.