title: Medical records contaminated with dried blood: A quality issue.
abstract: A routine chart review over 23 months in a 256-bed community hospital revealed 246 medical records contaminated with apparent blood. Sixty percent of the records were nursing and anesthesiology records. Analysis of systematically selected records confirmed blood as the visible contaminant in 27% of the cases (8/30). Total quality improvement methodology reduced the incidents by 75%. Actions included policy development, in-service education, and changes in work practices. Although bloodborne pathogen transmission is statistically improbable, we should improve work practices to eliminate blood contamination of charts.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nosocomial Infection, Our Lady of Fatima Hospital, North Providence, Rhode Island.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fishman
authors.forename: D J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Mikolich
authors.forename: G G
authors.initials: GG
authors.lastname: Fort
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Cataldo
mesh_terms: D001769:Blood; D004866:Equipment Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006764:Hospitals, Community; D006801:Humans; D008499:Medical Records; D011786:Quality Control