Fighting the needlestick battle without needles.

Institutions may face heavy fines by 1997 for not providing employees with safe sharps devices to prevent the spread of bloodborne pathogens to health care workers. One hospital decided to eliminate IVPB needles, which are responsible for the majority of needlestick injuries nationwide. To achieve this goal, medical-surgical nurses evaluated safe IVPB systems and chose one that decreased their needlestick injury rate by 68.6%.