If you are exposed to blood borne pathogens through a needle stick, splash, or other body fluid exposure source, you should do the following:

Decontaminate

Wash skin (affected area) with soap and water. Flush eyes/nose/mouth with water or saline.

Notify your supervisor

If you are in a room, let your attending know immediately so that he/she can help you get the materials/information you need and allow you to go to employee health or the ER.

Obtain source blood from the patient

Fill two yellow topped serum separator Vacutainer tubes with patient blood and label with stickers. Label miscellaneous slip stating "Source of Occupational Exposure" and send to Laboratory's Main Receiving, 5th floor McCullough Bldg. Indicate "general OR consent" to indicate the drawing of blood for serologic testing was performed under the auspices of the OR consent form. The lab will no longer perform HIV without patient consent.

File Workman's Compensation Form

Obtain a Workmans Comp claim form from Ena Hughes, fill it out, and call the number indicated to start you claim, then return the form to Ena. This step is important in order to get all your testing and possible medications paid for should further treatment be indicated.

Call Employee Health

Call 747-9500 immediately if exposure occurs Monday through Friday from 8 am to 4:30 pm. After hours, report to the UTMB Emergency Department. For any questions call the Health Care Hotline at 1-800-269-8478. You should make every effort to go to Employee Health or the ER as soon as you can arrange for a transfer of patient care to discuss your exposure and consider whether chemophophylaxis is indicated. If so, you should try to take your first dose within two hours of the exposure.

Tell the Occupational Risk Coordinator within the Department.

That would be me, Clark Venable. I am interested in keeping track of what circumstances and activities result in occupational exposures in order to assess what changes, if any, are indicated in how we do things. Ann Wooldridge has a recent MMWR publication on post-exposure prophylaxis in health care workers you will find filled with data, advice, and recommendations.