Safer Workers | Better Healthcare™
Dr. Amber Hogan Mitchell discusses the Ebola outbreak and importance of effective personal protective equipment, or PPE.
The International Safety Center is committed to improving the safety and health of those working in healthcare.
The Center is a woman-led, nonprofit research and advocacy organization. We are a global leader in occupational research and advocate around the world for safer healthcare workplaces. The Center conducts epidemiological research, surveillance, and outreach to measure and prevent sharps injuries, needlesticks, blood, and body fluid exposures. The Center’s work has informed the data-driven interventions, controls, and programs that protect those working in healthcare.
The International Safety Center is committed to improving the safety of healthcare workers worldwide and re-launched in 2014 with renewed focus on reducing exposures to bloodborne and infectious pathogens.
Public Health Need
Improving healthcare workplace safety is critical to both care providers and their patients.
Nearly 10% of Americans work in a healthcare setting, and over 10% of Americans will be admitted to an acute care facility. Meaning: One-fifth of the population can be impacted either directly or indirectly by exposure to infectious diseases spread through blood and body fluids.
Prevention of occupational injuries and illnesses among those working in healthcare ensures the best work efficiencies (e.g., reducing days away from work, increasing job ability and task completion, ensuring a viable healthcare staff-to-patient ratio, etc.) through the continuity of public and private care.
To address this need, The International Safety Center:
- Identifies injuries that can be prevented with the use of safer medical devices and engineering controls
- Targets high-risk procedures for intervention
- Promulgates and promotes successful blood and body fluid exposure prevention measures
- Prepares reports, and conducts trainings and consultations
About EPINet
The Center’s Exposure Prevention Information Network (EPINet) surveillance system has provided healthcare facilities with a standardized system for tracking the occupational exposures that put healthcare staff at risk.
The EPINet system consists of a Needlestick and Sharp Object Injury Report, a Blood and Body Fluid Exposure Report, a Post-Exposure Follow-Up Form, and Access®*-supported software for entering and analyzing form data.
Since its introduction in 1992, EPINet has been distributed to over 1,500 hospitals in the United States and to hospitals in 95 countries, as well.
About Our Funding
Our work and the EPINet resources we are able to provide healthcare facilities around the world for free would not be possible without the gracious charitable contributions and unrestricted educational grants from medical device and equipment manufacturers. We would especially like to thank our sponsors.
If you are interested in becoming a sponsor, contributor, or funder, contact us today!
Gina Pugliese Memorial Fund
This year, we lost one of our occupational health heroes. We honor her life, her work, and her legacy through the Gina Pugliese Memorial Fund for the Delivery of Safer Healthcare. Gina (1948-2019) was a great advocate of safe practices and infection prevention and control in the health sector. She won numerous awards, including honors from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, the American Hospital Association, and was recognized by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for her work on bloodborne pathogens training. She will be greatly missed by those who knew her and we hope this fund will provide resources to ongoing surveillance and outreach for protecting patients and personnel from harm.
Find out more about Gina and her amazing life.
To contribute to the fund, contact Dr. Amber Mitchell.