March 29, 2024- BD announced the results of a new survey conducted by The Harris Poll that reveals that many patients receive too many needlesticks in hospital procedures and amplifies misconceptions and lack of awareness from Americans on the risks of common medical procedures.
Needlesticks are an often-overlooked challenge but can be one of the most traumatic aspects of a patient’s hospital stay. More than half of Americans (51%) report some fear of needles, and of that group, a top reason is fear of needing multiple needle insertions (31%).
The survey findings reflect that this concern isn’t unwarranted: a shocking 11% of survey participants with recent hospital experience needed 10 or more sticks to obtain a single blood sample – and, more than half required multiple needlestick attempts for a single procedure (59% for IVs and 71% for blood draws). Moreover, 77% of patients are unaware that regardless of what conditions they may have, patients should expect no more than two needlestick attempts from one clinician.