Sharp PR helped contain sharps container accident - Illinois Masonic Medical Center - editorial

Health Industry Today, June, 1991 by Donald E.L. Johnson

A highly regarded Chicago hospital hit the headlines last month with news of an accident that might have exposed a patient and two toddlers to AIDS. The incident has important implications for medical supply manufacturers, distributors and providers.

The hospital's crisis public relations effort seemed to be similar to Johnson & Johnson's response to the Tylenol tampering case of the early 1980s. Illinois Masonic Medical Center was open and forthcoming with information. Apparently, hospitals as well as many manufacturers have learned a lot from the Tylenol case. (Last month they learned the last chapter. J&J settled a product liability case out of court rather than have a jury decide whether it should have anticipated the tampering.)

Suits already have been filed against the hospital, and product liability suits for the manufacturer of the sharps container can't be far behind. It's that kind of world.

As a result of the infection control incident in Chicago, hospitals are reassessing their sharps containers and where they place them, according to the June issue of Hospital Materials Management.

Unfortunately, a patient took her baby and a three-year-old into an examining room and didn't watch them closely. While playing, they got their hands into a sharps container and cut themselves on a blade that had been used on an AIDS patient. It could be months or years before it's known whether the kids are HIV-positive.

Finding opportunities

This incident, like many that have preceded it, offers several opportunities and lessons to manufacturers. The opportunities are to:

* Introduce new sharps containers that are more child-proof.

* Mail instructions to hospitals and physicians' offices on how to avoid further incidents.

* Warn hospitals to put containers out of reach of both kids and inattentive adults.

* Relabel sharps containers with warnings against letting kids in rooms that have the containers and against leaving inattentive adults alone in rooms with the containers.

* Promote the more child-proof, horizontal load containers that already are on the market and are becoming more popular with hospitals.

The medical supply industry, along with the supplier of the sharps containers, in this case, Sage Products, Cary, Ill., can learn several lessons.

The first lesson is that you need good product liability insurance for even the most mundane product. If an idiot can misuse a product, he will.

Second, all manufacturers need to review their packaging and make sure they know how their products are disposed of after they are used.

If there is a chance that a product will expose a patient or worker to infection or other injuries, the manufacturer needs to look at the product's design and its in-service training responsibilities.

Third, if a manufacturer introduces a safer product, as in the case of sharps containers, it should make sure that its customers are warned about the appropriate use of the older products and the dangers of not converting to the newer, safer product.

Finally, when there is an incident, manufacturers must be ready to help customers deal with their problems. They must follow the J&J rules for dealing with the media in a crisis. Sage, for example, which may not be the only supplier of sharps containers to Illinois Masonic, was very cooperative in talking with the trade press about its products. It stressed that it probably wasn't the only supplier to the hospital and explained the different types of containers it markets and how and when they should be used.