D.C. cops get protection from pathogens
Washington, D.C., cops seem to be constantly under fire. But now, they are learning how to protect themselves from yet another way of dying.
But Betty Wooten, chief of employee health services, and her colleagues are there to tell the officers about a subtle, insidious danger that can be communicated by contact with a single drop of blood.
The presentation was part of the city’s efforts to comply with the federal bloodborne pathogens (BBP) standards. Issued in 1992, these require that municipalities and other workplaces where employees’ occupations may bring them into contact with hepatitis B, HIV, malaria and other pathogens have a plan in place to help workers protect themselves.
Immunizations must be offered where appropriate.
Cities, states, hospitals and school districts have been scrambling since the regulations came out to institute plans, and some are still at it. Wooten and her colleagues began their effort Sept. 14, 1993. Given that D.C. has more than 41,000 employees with titles ranging from baker to prison guard, clear thinking and strategy were important parts of the city’s BBP planning.
At the start of the effort, Wooten, together with Dr. Martin Levy, chief of epidemiology and disease control, convened a task force made up of representatives from city departments to decide which groups would need education and which would need vaccination as well.
“The OSHA regulation is extremely broad in terms of who might be considered at risk with even occasional possible blood contact,” Levy explains. “So even some people in public works who might fix plumbing problems, say at D.C. General Hospital, should be in the program.”
Wooten and company secured cooperation by visiting each department head, writing a proposal for a training and vaccination program and making a return visit with an OSHA official along for support.
Upon agreeing to conduct a BBP session, she made one rule to help snare the maximum number of attendees: “We go where they’re employed.”
Wooten stationed nurses at the rear of a room or immediately outside so employees could be vaccinated immediately after a presentation if they wished. For the sake of speed and ready availability, attendees received BBP and hepatitis educational materials produced by the city’s vaccine provider, SmithKline Beecham.
Additionally, videos from several sources were shown.
For the Department of Corrections, Wooten prompted the formation of a task force to devise new procedures to minimize risk to employees.
Once the workers had the information, they then were taught how to build new habits so they could react properly in an emergency situation.
The corrections department is also training employees in panic avoidance. If an exposure occurs, workers will know how to remain level-headed and remember to visit a medical professional as soon as possible, says Dr. William Hall, assistant director for health services in the Department of Corrections. Counseling is available if necessary.
The cost of Wooten’s team’s efforts amounted to little more than the expense of vaccination and materials.