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Constella Group Releases Results from First National Study Examining Occupational Blood Exposure Rates in Paramedics

The study, which is the first nationwide research of its kind, estimates the national incidence rates of on-the-job blood exposures in paramedics, and the routes by which they are exposed.

Constella conducted the study through a mail survey it sent to certified paramedics throughout the United States. The survey focused on the number of times over a one-year period that paramedics are exposed to patient blood and the means through which they are exposed, including accidental needlestick, contact with “non-intact skin” (i.e. cuts, lesions), contact with mucous membranes (i.e. eyes, nose, and mouth), patient bites, or through cuts from other sharp objects containing patient blood, such as broken glass.

According to Dr. Jack Leiss, Chief Epidemiologist at Constella, who led the study, the research resulted in two major findings.

“First, our study results indicate that more than 20 percent of paramedics are exposed to patient blood at least once over the course of a year,” said Dr. Leiss. “Second, just as many of those exposures occur through contact with mucous membranes as through needlesticks. While the primary focus of research and prevention efforts has been on needlesticks, our study indicates that exposures to the eyes, nose and mouth may be equally important.”

Dr. Leiss also notes that overall exposure rates are more than 50 percent lower in California, the first state to have a needlestick prevention law in place. California’s law, which requires all healthcare workers to use special safety needles to prevent needlestick accidents, long preceded the National Needlestick Prevention Law, enacted in 2000. Because of this, Constella examined California paramedics separately.

“We did not design the study to focus on whether or not needlestick prevention laws help reduce blood exposures in paramedics, but the fact that the exposure rates for paramedics in California are only one-fourth of the rates in the country as a whole suggests that the law worked,” said Dr. Leiss.

The conclusions of the study suggest that paramedics continue to be at substantial risk for blood exposure and that, while needlestick prevention is important, more attention should be given to reducing blood exposures through mucus membranes. It is also suggested that the impact of legislation on reducing exposures should be further explored, and that the importance of non-intact skin exposures needs to be better understood.