Precautions About Blood Testing Devices

The Federal Drug Administration (FDA) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released an advisory on the use of fingerstick and Point of Care (POC) devices. The advisory notes a progressive increase in the reported number of patients with bloodborne infections, primarily hepatitis B, resulting from the repeated use of these devices.

The CDC recommends that reusable devices not be used in a setting where more than one person is being tested due to difficulties cleaning them after use. (These devices resemble a pen with a removable lancet.) There are several causes for concern:

It is difficult for health care staff to ensure that all blood has been removed from POC blood testing devices or the reusable portions of the fingerstick device.

Contaminated blood left on the device could result in bloodborne pathogen transmission between patients;

The contamination could result in wrong readings for individuals.

The CDC recommends the following:

Only single use, disposable devices should be used in medical practices;

Make sure employees are trained to discard fingerstick or POC devices after each use;

Carefully monitor staff and newly hired employees who are assigned to perform blood tests for adherence to this policy;

Whenever possible, blood glucose meters should not be shared. If they must be shared, the device should be cleaned and disinfected after every use, per manufacturer's instructions (if the manufacturer does not specify how the device should be cleaned and disinfected then it should not be shared);

Insulin pens and other medication cartridges and syringes are for single-patient-use only and should never be used for more than one person.

The MedWatch safety alert is available here.

Authored by

Waldene Drake, RN, MBA

Vice President of Risk Management & Patient Safety

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