UVa center aims to boost health of Congo workers

By Tasha Kates

Published: September 20, 2009

The University of Virginia Health System’s International Healthcare Worker Safety Center has helped set up a center to improve healthcare worker safety in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
UVa’s center and the Dikembe Mutombo Foundation worked together to create the Center of Excellence in Occupational Safety for Health Workers at Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital. The new center provides a place for employees to get tested for blood-borne pathogens to which they may have been exposed on the job.

Africa’s health workers are at high risk of exposure to HIV and hepatitis B and C. Despite this risk, the employees are reluctant to get tested, said Elayne Kornblatt Phillips, an assistant professor of medicine and director of research for UVa’s healthcare center.
“Healthcare workers don’t want to get tested in their own hospital,” Phillips said. “There is a stigma attached if they are found to be infected.”

Janine Jagger, the director of UVa’s center, said this was the first time UVa has been asked to help develop a program in Africa. Jagger credits Mutombo, an 18-year NBA player who retired in April from the Houston Rockets, because he is trying to establish a model program.
“They want to show that in Africa, hospitals can be well designed and have programs to address need of employees, as well as patients,” Jagger said.
The hospital, which is named for Mutombo’s late mother, opened in 2007. Mutombo’s foundation teamed up with BD, a New Jersey-based medical technology company, which in turn contacted UVa’s center to help with the project.
Jagger and Phillips traveled to Congo in August to help educate the hospital about safety procedures and teach the employees to use EPINet, a sharps injury tracking program that Jagger designed. The data can be used to create an injury prevention program.

Employee safety is the lowest priority for hospitals with limited resources, Jagger said, but creativity can keep costs to a minimum. The center itself is constructed from metal shipping containers. Jagger said installing puncture-resistant containers that normally would be recycled can solve the problem of sharps waste, which is the top cause of health worker injuries.
“If they can distinguish between what’s appropriate and inappropriate, then they can use what they have,” she said. “Then they need protocol to place them appropriately and empty them before they’re completely full.”
Jagger and Phillips expect to return to the hospital next year.