Catskill Hospital warns that insulin pens may have been reused

[Northerner]

Catskill Regional Medical Center issued a warning Tuesday that some patients might have been exposed to HIV and hepatitis by the shared use of insulin injection pens.

The Harris hospital alerted patients in a news release that insulin pens might have been reused on more than one patient between 2007 and May 2013.

?While CRMC is not aware of any contamination between patients, as a precautionary measure CRMC is recommending that those patients be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and HIV,? the news release said.

Hospital Spokesman Rob Lee said the issue was uncovered during ?routine nursing education on the use of insulin pens.?

http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130521/NEWS/130529929

"blood can be regurgitated into the insulin cartridge" - really? You're not using it right! 🙄

 

[Copepod]

Had to work out where this article was written. Saw Harris, but realised there's no Catskill Hospital in Western Isles / Outer Hebrides. Eventually realised there was a conenction with Catskill Mountains of New York state, USA.

So, it's sharing of cartridges (or disposable pens), not sharing of pens with disposable cartridges. Admittedly, the risk and likelihood of blood going from patient into cartridge is small (or very small), it is completely avoidable by using disposable items correctly. The symbol of a figure 2 in a circle with a line through it means "one use only", but also, by implication, means "one patient only" - and while I'm happy to reuse needles, lancets etc many times on myself, I would never use a used sharp on someone else, nor use a sharp used by someone else on myself.