Standard precautions ignored

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Recently I went to the local clinic to have blood drawn. I was horrified that the phlebotomist did not once wash her hands between patients, nor wear gloves. She even kept reusing the same bloody vacutainer sleeve and and a bloody tourniquet. OK so now it's my turn. When I told her to wash her hands, wear gloves, and change her bloody equipment she looked at me as though I had two heads. I finally said "look, I have hep C" (which I don't, but she wouldn't comply with my requests otherwise). I filed a written complaint with the clinic. I have finally received a written response which states that ..."phlebotomists have never been instructed to follow standard precautions in this clinic. However this has been rectified and they will wash their hands after each patient. They will wear gloves for those patients deemed to be high risk" Doesn't this negate the purpose of standard precautions? Aren't we to consider all are high risk?

I have never seen such blatent disregard for standard precautions. This incident happened in Canada. I work in the US and am so glad of that. Your thoughts?

Specializes in Case Mgmt; Mat/Child, Critical Care.
Here in CA, a few years ago, a lab tech was caught washing out and re-using butterfly needles to draw blood. Most bizzare! Cost Kaiser a fortune!

What??!! :eek: OMG! How sick! Why in the world would someone do that? It's more trouble to wash a butterfly than to just throw it away and get a new one! Geez, what a sicko!:nono:

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That reminds me of an MD I used to work for...he was a real tight-wad when it came to supplies, he would take is gloves off nicely and reuse them. I was working as a medical assistant for him, and he walked in and saw me throwing my gloves away. He pulled me out of the room and advised me that those are not cheap, and if I am going to throw them away then I can buy my own. I told him that reusing them defeats the purpose of wearing them and that I would not do that. I continued to use gloves and throw them away, then we ran out of my size and he didn't buy more. So, I started using his size which was too big. He then discovered it was a losing battle and bought me more. He reused other things too, such as the ear covers for the otoscope, he would buy boxes of each size, then rewash them...they said disposable on the box. He would stack them and put them back. After myself and the receptionist really giving him a hard time about it, he quit doing that. But he still reused lots of other stuff. Then he wondered why I wouldn't bring my kids to him.He asked me why one day, and I finally told him that his practice was unsanitary and that he could lose his license. I think he finally got it, and he quit doing it, but he was not happy about it. He would snarl every time he threw his gloves away. Sorry such a long post, just letting you know it goes on everywhere, unfortunately. But, it makes you a wiser patient.

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I went to have blood drawn at a major hospital recently, I found the phlebotomists remove the needle from the vacutainer but reuse the plastic part, which is labelled clearly as single use only, this infuriated me!

The one part I occasionally disagree with (and I know its against standard precautions) is wearing gloves when starting an IV. I have a latex allergy and in our department, we use the really thick non-flexable gloves that you really can't feel a thing through. I wear them 99% of the time as I know if you don't have an open wound, the risk is to you and not the patient... but when I have a patient with very very bad veins, there is no way I can feel them through those thick purple gloves! I make sure the pt sees me wash my hands again and try to feel it with my fingertips. This is something I want to bring up with management, but even though I know the hospital does actually stock non-latex gloves which are the same thickness as latex, they are much more expensive and not being highly coloured, there is the risk they will be used by non allergic people. Drives me mad!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
I think this is unfair work practices forced on medical staff in the name of OSHA. so why can't I use them to pick up my covered drink at the nurses station when no specimens come near the desk?

This is a JCAHO requirement that no food or drink containers be kept in the work space. Also, please don't take any offense, but the truly unfair work practice is that you are working short-handed, not that they won't permit drinks in the work area. I think I would be more upset about not getting to take a lunch break than the other.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, Geriatrics.
but when I have a patient with very very bad veins, there is no way I can feel them through those thick purple gloves! I make sure the pt sees me wash my hands again and try to feel it with my fingertips. This is something I want to bring up with management, but even though I know the hospital does actually stock non-latex gloves which are the same thickness as latex, they are much more expensive and not being highly coloured, there is the risk they will be used by non allergic people. Drives me mad!

Typically, when I have a patient with difficult to palpate veins I find it with my bare finger first,make a tiny indentation with my fingernail, just enough to mark the skin and I then keep my eye on that mark as I apply my gloves, wipe the area and do the stick. It has worked very well for me, I never do that break the index finger of the glove dealie.

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Interesting idea, I'm not sure I keep my nails long enough to do this (we are contractually made to keep them short). I'll have a think about how I can do this in future... though to be honest, since the gloves provided are soooo thick and its only a risk to me, I will keep doing it with people with life threatening probs (resus) for a while until I come up with something better!

Typically, when I have a patient with difficult to palpate veins I find it with my bare finger first,make a tiny indentation with my fingernail, just enough to mark the skin and I then keep my eye on that mark as I apply my gloves, wipe the area and do the stick. It has worked very well for me, I never do that break the index finger of the glove dealie.
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Also worked ED and also horrific at not using gloves when starting IVs. :rolleyes: I know, I know all the reasons and such, but it was such a pain in the bum. Especially when you're doing little babies and little old ladies with tiny, fragile veins.

I know, I know...... no excuses.

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Recently I went to the local clinic to have blood drawn. I was horrified that the phlebotomist did not once wash her hands between patients, nor wear gloves. She even kept reusing the same bloody vacutainer sleeve and and a bloody tourniquet. OK so now it's my turn. When I told her to wash her hands, wear gloves, and change her bloody equipment she looked at me as though I had two heads. I finally said "look, I have hep C" (which I don't, but she wouldn't comply with my requests otherwise). I filed a written complaint with the clinic. I have finally received a written response which states that ..."phlebotomists have never been instructed to follow standard precautions in this clinic. However this has been rectified and they will wash their hands after each patient. They will wear gloves for those patients deemed to be high risk" Doesn't this negate the purpose of standard precautions? Aren't we to consider all are high risk?

I have never seen such blatent disregard for standard precautions. This incident happened in Canada. I work in the US and am so glad of that. Your thoughts?

It happens everywhere. I could not sit and watch someone use contaminated things like you did, however. That's where control begins... with those of us in the know. We need to speak up in those situations you described

If you work with me and we have a contact precaution patient... you better wear your gear. I'd want you to do it for me!

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