Funding Scheme 2001-2002

People employed in healthcare run particularly high health risks. According to the labour statistics of the European Union, the number of occupational accidents among this group is 33 per cent higher than among the employees of any other professional field.

By providing proven protective measures as well as guidelines for responsible behaviour, this project aims to provide quality assurance measures for the areas of hospital hygiene and safety in Austria which up until now have not been standardised or nationally regulated in a uniform manner.

One of the very interesting and encouraging features of this project is that it provided inspiration to a German organisation to undertake a similar initiative (LGA-Baden-Wurtemberg), and the International Sharp Injury Preventing Society in the USA was made aware of the project and will also promote it.

Who organised this project?

Gesundheitsmanagement Burger-Wieland OEG (OEG Health Management).

Gesundheitsmanagement Burger-Wieland

Type of organisation

Private company

Sector

Health Care

Activity

Information and communication
Good practice provision

Outputs

Publications
Website
Audiovisual material
Workshops

Total budget: € 231,754

Agency support: € 80,000

What is it called?

Prevention of blood-transmitted infections.

What was the project about?

In their daily work, nursing and laboratory staff, doctors and cleaners frequently handle sharp and pointed objects such as syringes and scalpels. These could be contaminated with the body fluids of patients, whose infection status is unknown. Needle wounds and cuts produced by such contaminated objects may lead to blood-transmitted infections like Hepatitis B and C, and HIV.

This project produced a CD-ROM for health professionals, which provides help and instruction for drawing up internal hospital guidelines and for standardising working procedures in order to minimise the risk of blood transmitted infections, and which also provides knowledge of emergency measures in case of accident. This CD-ROM was distributed free of charge throughout Austria directly to the target group.

This project covered the production and distribution of a CD-ROM to a targeted group of health professionals who are at risk of stabs and cuts by blood-contaminated, sharp or pointed objects. A website was also established.

The aim of the project was to avoid occupational infections (hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV) by improving the information level of health professionals and enabling them to take adequate preventive measures, by means of:

increased awareness concerning the risks of blood-transmissible infections
standardisation of procedures
job-specific risk evaluation
increased knowledge of emergency measures in case of injury
increased quality consciousness concerning safety products and personal safety equipment.

What was the target group?

The target group was health professionals, who during their daily work are exposed to the risk of needle wounds and cuts from pointed and sharp objects contaminated with blood or other liquids. These include:

general practitioners
hospitals
nursing schools
laboratories
army medical facilities
law enforcement bodies
blood donor centres
dialysis facilities
nursing homes
waste disposal workers
dental medicine
cleaning services.

Special attention was paid to the possibility of being able to use the CD-ROM for training purposes in nursing schools and similar training institutions, because until now no teaching material of this type had existed in Austria.

What did they do?

A CD-ROM for health professionals

The target groups were small and medium-sized enterprises in the health sector (general practitioners, hospitals, blood donor centres, etc.)

The CD-ROM contained:

the contents of a previously-produced ‘Handbook for health professionals’ (interactive adaptation): protective and emergency measures
video sequences concerning protective and emergency measures
training documentation for printing
working documentation for printing
index of products and suppliers
relevant legal texts (employee protection law, medical product law, regulation on biological agents, etc.).

The video sequences for the CD-ROM illustrate sources of danger, prevention measures, the handling of used hypodermic systems, disposing of medical waste as well as emergency measures. Up until the production of this CD-ROM, there were no training materials for health professionals available in Austria.

Included in the CD-ROM is an extensive print package that clearly explains the contents and function of the data carrier and serves as well as a presentation platform for all organisations and institutions supporting the project and occupied with health care and safety at work.

A website ( www.gesundheitsberufe.at )

Parallel to this, an information platform on the Internet was established called ‘The website for health professionals’ ( www.gesundheitsberufe.at new window ). The aim of this website was to provide updates for the CD-ROM as well as a calendar of events and an order form for the newly-developed medium. It went online in June 2002.

Contents of the webpage:

facts and figures
legal provisions
hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV infection risks
measures
information and training media
working documentation
products
news
contacts and addresses.

An information leaflet in German and English

An information leaflet was also published about the new available information and training media for the prevention of blood-transmitted infections among healthcare professionals (CD-ROM, training film, and handbook). This is available in both German and English.

Promotion

A programme of promotion of these materials was undertaken, with the project receiving publicity through:

a conference of German-speaking networks of health promoting hospitals in Vienna
forum for Waste and Environment in Innsbruck
Austrian symposium for HIV and Aids nursing in Graz
World congress on safety and health at work in Vienna
multimedia festival of the World congress on safety and health at work in Vienna
the website
press releases
mailshots
submission for national awards
European conference of nurses in Aids care, Manchester
official presentation of the CD-ROM and website at the 5th Austrian symposium for HIV and Aids nursing in Vienna
conference of hospital security experts in Geinberg.

Distribution

165 hospitals and nursing homes in Austria received over 3,000 copies
72 nursing schools received over 400 copies
250 divisions of occupational medicine received over 300 copies
145 orders received on the internet accounted for over 350 copies
1,000 copies within the target group by the pharmaceutical enterprises supporting the project
distribution of over 200 copies to security experts
20 copies to midwifery academies
general practitioners with the support of the medical association (about 4,700 copies).