Business, Society, and Policy: Becton Dickinson Case Study Analysis

This case study analyzes the Becton Dickinson case, focusing on the company's role as a major medical supply producer and the issues arising from its syringe design. The study highlights the key issue of healthcare worker exposure to blood contamination due to faulty needle designs, leading to the spread of diseases like Hepatitis B, C, and HIV. It examines various stakeholder interests, including those of the FDA, OSHA, and competing manufacturers, and identifies conflicts, such as patent disputes and quality concerns. The ethical dilemmas faced by Becton Dickinson, including the decision to produce only certain syringe types with safety features, are also analyzed. The case details the impact of these decisions, including legal actions and financial penalties, emphasizing the importance of business responsibility, ethical decision-making, and the influence of government regulations in protecting public health and safety.

Running Head: BUSINESS SOCIETY AND POLICY 0
CASE
STUDY
Business, Society and
Policy
Student details:

BUSINESS SOCIETY AND POLICY 1
1. Identify & analyse the key issues raised in the case.
The following case study is based on the issue of contamination caused by coming in
contact of the infectious needles. The case study focuses over the issue of a company
Becton Dickinson that is the largest producer of medical supplies in the world whose
lenience and irresponsible behaviour took lives of thousands of people. In the following
case study, it is stated that because of improper design and functioning of the syringes
the medical suffered a lot. There are numerous cases witnessed where the nurses were
infected while removing an intravenous system, drawing blood from the body of patient,
delivering injection to an AIDS/ HIV positive patients (Schneider, et al., 2013). There
was no hospital left such kind of case was not witnessed. As Becton Dickinson, supplied
most of the medical assets to these hospitals all faced so similar issues.
As per the case study, around 12000 health care workers were annually exposed to blood
contamination and encountered to blood borne diseases. The diseases, which were widely
spread, were hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV positive. The staff suffered with these
diseases because of accidently coming in contact to the blood of an infected person. Dr.
Janine Jaegger marked a question that it is not the way of using tool, which is causing
problem rather it is the design of the needles, which is not good. Therefore, he suggested
that the design of the syringes should be modified in which there are less risks for the
nursing staff to be contaminated (Reid, 2012).
Another issue that came into the sight was that the nurses could not be educated how to
keep check over such difficulties during emergency conditions .
2. Analyse the various stakeholder interests in the case and identify the conflicts
between parties and the ethical dilemmas from the interactions of Business, Society
and Government within the case.
After reading the following case study, we got to know that various stakeholders had interest
in seeking benefits from the faults of Becton Dickinson. Along with this, there were conflicts
among manufacturers who wanted that Becton Dickinson should transfer the patent rights of
protected sleeve model. The case also enumerates the interaction between different
stakeholders, society and the influence of government over the whole issue. Numerous
stakeholders in the case study have participated in the issues of Becton Dickinson case. For
instance, the food and drug association (FDA), OSHA and other small-scale companies like
Retractable who produced medical assets demanded for change (McCaffrey, 2013). The
demanded that Becton Dickinson should either start producing the syringes with protected
sleeves or pass the patent rights of Sampson and Mitchell’s model of protected sleeve to other

BUSINESS SOCIETY AND POLICY 2
companies. In the following case study it was observed that The Retractable, which was a
small manufacturing company produced safety syringes, claimed Becton Dickinson to pay an
amount of $100 million dollars for inflicting the trade of small manufacturers. This conflict
turned in a major fight when the group named ECRI province a report stating that the safety
lok syringes produce by Becton Dickinson was good in quality than that of Becton
Dickinson’s original product. Keeping this report in sight, the U.S. veteran’s administration
ranked that the safety –lok syringes were extremely below the quality of safety products
manufactured by others (David & Mermet, 2014).
The Becton Dickinson was torn in ethical dilemma of making a decision of either producing
all the types of syringes with protected sleeves or not. The company only produced 3-cc
protected sleeve syringes in spite of producing all the syringes with protected sleeves.
When the field test completed Becton Dickinson has decided which syringes would be
marketed with protected sleeves. The company has only rights to produce syringes with
Sampson and Mitchell’s model, even after knowing this company decided to produce only 3-
cc model of syringe with protected sleeve. This is because it is the most commonly used
syringe type in the hospitals. It was a matter of fact that 5-cc and 10-cc syringe was produced
without protected sleeves and these syringes were used to draw blood from people. This was
one of the major mistake done by Becton Dickinson as a nurse named Maryann Rockwood
got infected while drawing blood from the body of a HIV positive person she mistakenly
pricked herself while transferring the blood. During this process she was using a 5-cc syringe
manufactured by Becton Dickinson ( which was not a syringe with protected sleeve). She
sued the company over not following the laws , on this government supported the nurse and
the hospitals also joined the campaign of getting fine money from Becton Dickinson.
Eventually, the company was asked to pay a juicy amount of $100 billion dollars as it did not
worked according to the guidelines prescribed (Harding, et al., 2018).

BUSINESS SOCIETY AND POLICY 3
Bibliography
David, O. & Mermet, E., 2014. Becton Dickinson France. Syringe with universal end-piece,
8(652), p. 094.
Harding, W., Bornhoft, S. & Bingham, C., 2018. Needle cover. U.S. Patent Application,
29(591), p. 958.
McCaffrey, D., 2013. OSHA and the Politics of Health Regulation. New York: Springer
Science & business media.
Reid, A., 2012. Needle device having retractable needle providing enhanced safety.. U.S.
Patent, 8(152), p. 770.
Schneider, J. et al., 2013. Becton Dickinson and Co. Infusion device, 29(418), p. 304.