A Massachusetts dentist is being sued by the U.S. Department of Labor for allegedly firing an employee for raising concerns about needlestick hazards and filing a health hazard complaint with the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

A dental assistant employed in his practice since 2002 raised concerns about an office procedure involving the handling of contaminated needles. Contaminated needles that had been protectively capped were placed into a sharps container,
according to the lawsuit. But in October 2010 the dentist Dr Fayad changed the procedure so that workers were required to remove the protective caps from the contaminated needles before putting the needles into the disposal sharps containers, the complaint states.

Dr Fayad changed the procedure so that more needles would fit in the sharps containers, “reducing the frequency of their disposal by Fayad’s disposal service provider and saving Fayad money,” the lawsuit alleges.

I’m rather surprised at the protectively capping of needles since policy now is to discard needles without recapping that is itself a risky procedure. However, the claim goes back to 2002 so perhaps this was indeed so. However, to attempt retrieval of sharps from a bin and then deliberately remove the caps for any reason, let alone saving money, is pure madness. If the allegation is true, I hope they take the guy to the cleaners and make certain, through the relevant licensing body, that he never works again.

http://www.drbicuspid.com/index.aspx?sec=sup&sub=pmt&pag=dis&ItemID=308684