SF lab switches needles and reduces complaints

Department: San Francisco Outpatient Lab

Value Compass: Quality    

Problem: Needles used to draw blood presented needle-stick risks to employees and caused severe bruising to patients

Metric: Patient complaints and staff near-miss injuries

Labor co-lead: Fatmata Kula Jah, phlebotomist

Management co-lead: Diane Chandler, manager  

Small test of change: Piloted use of a different brand of needle

Result: Patient complaints of bruising dropped 70 percent and complaints from staff about near-miss needle sticks also decreased.

Biggest challenge: Getting everyone’s input and convincing people of change.

“Some people wanted to stick with one thing, but once they started using the new product they saw how it worked better,” says phlebotomist Melissa Paredes, workplace safety committee co-lead.

Advice to other teams

Document everything, particularly to help you determine whether you’re making a difference, says the team’s sponsor, Assistant Lab Director Maureen Fitzgibbons.

Agree that it’s a problem before tackling a project, according to union co-lead Fatmata Kula Jah. “Then we can work as a team to decide on a resolution,” she says.

Side benefits

Repetitive motion injuries are down, and many on the team say the project also illustrated partnership at its best.

“I would say (the partnership) worked well because it wasn’t something that was determined by one person,” explains Kula Jah. “It was a partnership with labor identifying the issue and bringing it to attention of management and having management join with labor to find a solution.”