How Owen Mumford creates safety devices to meet user needs
We have been pioneering medical device advancement for over 70 years and part of this success is because we listen and understand what the challenges are of hospital treatments for people all over the world. By continually working with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients, we can determine how we can best deliver comfortable, accurate and most importantly safe medical devices that draw on our manufacturing experience.
With the NHS experiencing some of the most severe pressures in its 70-year history, as levels of burnout rise significantly since they were first tracked in 2018, it is now more important than ever to ensure safe care is administered. A recent study by the British Medical Journal found that “44% of trainee doctors and nurses regularly felt “exhausted in the morning”” and “26% of doctors said that tiredness had impaired their ability to provide safe care.”(1) When factors like fatigue set in, the risk of injury to both patient and HCP rises, especially the danger of a needlestick injury (NSI), something which 69% of HCPs have experienced in their career(2). This is where we can try to make a positive difference with our medical devices. Our product ranges are all about protecting the user.
Unifine® SafeControl®, our active safety pen needle is designed to give HCPs confidence in delivering a full medication dose to the patient, whilst also providing protection from NSI. Featuring an active safety mechanism, which engages through a manual push tab that gives the HCP total control, the safety guard covers the needle after the injection has been administered to protect from NSI.
Having led the development of capillary blood sampling devices for use in point of care testing for many years, we understand the safety requirements for this vital part of diagnostic testing. Our Unistik® Touch 16G has one-touch activation which means by simply pressing the device against the sample site, it activates automatically under pressure. Once activated, the needle retracts into the body of the device, minimising the risk of re-use, cross-infection, and injury.
Our new venous blood collection range builds upon this experience in the capillary blood sampling market to offer a range of devices that provide safety, comfort and quality for HCPs drawing large blood volumes from patients. A used needle may cause a NSI, even if it is only exposed momentarily. The Unistik® venous blood collection range, with our VacuFlip and ShieldLock products, feature safety mechanisms to help reduce the risk of NSIs for safer blood collection procedures.
References:
(1) Weigl, M. (2022) “Physician Burnout Undermines Safe Healthcare,” BMJ [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o2157.
(2) Weigl, M. (2022) “Physician Burnout Undermines Safe Healthcare,” BMJ [Preprint]. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.o2157.