Hospital Waste Disposal

Do Your Employees Follow Protocol for Hospital Waste Disposal?

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Dealing with hospital generated waste is not only the responsibility of the hospital administration but also of every hospital employee. Do you know if your employees are adequately trained on medical waste protocol? 

Managing this waste should begin at the site of generation where waste should be properly collected and segregated from other non-hazardous waste in specific color-coded receptacles. Moving the hazardous medical waste through the hospital should be well mapped and identified by special carts. Hospital staff should be thoroughly trained on all waste handling procedures.

As a professional who works in healthcare, you’re faced with myriad stresses on a daily basis. In addition to ensuring proper patient care, following the right medical waste disposal procedures is key to the safety of everyone involved and not something you should have to worry about.

Here are just a few things to be aware of:

What is Hospital Waste Disposal?

It shouldn’t be confusing, but it can be. Understanding hospital waste disposal can be tricky, especially when you have staff members with varying levels of experience and training. Some items may not even appear used or soiled, but are possibly contaminated and dangerous. Your hospital staff must understand the nature of medical waste and proper handling and disposal protocols for the safety of everyone involved.  

Avoiding Accidental Injuries

Sharps are often the first thing people think of when they think of medical waste and rightly so. The potential for injury with sharps is substantial and worth the concern. Disposing of sharps is definitely something your staff needs to be cognizant of to avoid potential injuries and accidents that can lead to the spread of illness. Using correct sharps containers is just one part of proper disposal. It’s crucial that everyone understands exactly how to handle them, how often to have containers replaced and what to do if they are stuck by a needle or other sharp.

Hospital Waste Disposal

Control For Overflow

So your people know their stuff on how and when to dispose of waste items, but wait, there’s more! What about the pickup and removal schedule? Without regularly scheduled and on demand pick-up, medical waste can fill up and overflow resulting in a messy and hazardous situation. Your facility needs a set pickup schedule based on the rate which waste is generated. Staff should also monitor the bins and note if they are filling at a faster rate so that on demand pickups can be scheduled.  

Medical Waste Container Handling

While you could have your employees move, unlock and transport medical waste bins, why assume the liability? Medical Waste disposal companies are specially trained, equipped and insured to safely and properly transport and dispose of medical waste. There’s no need to risk mishaps, including spillage, could occur which endangers your team and your patients.

Who Will Be Your Trusted Provider

Just like in any other industry, there are those companies who claim to be experts but don’t have the proper certification and licensing to provide medical waste disposal. Choosing the wrong company to handle your medical waste can be hazardous and cause illness among your workers and your patients or clients. Be sure that you select an organization that is licensed and is OSHA, HIPAA and Health Department compliant.

Before health care staff interact with regulated medical waste, such as soiled items, needles and other sharp instruments, it’s important for them to receive training about the risks associated with medical waste and strategies for safely handling and disposing of it. Not only is this the right thing to do to ensure a safer, more healthful working environment, but it is also required by several states and regulatory bodies.

Hospital Waste Disposal

Know Your Hospital Waste Disposal Regulations

State Regulations

Regulations vary from state to state. While some require both orientation and annual refresher training, others don’t identify specific medical waste disposal training requirements. It is important to understand your state’s requirements and to make sure you have the appropriate training in place.

OSHA Guidelines

In addition to your state requirements, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) requires orientation and annual refresher training for staff members who deal with sharps and potentially infectious substances. This training should cover how to avoid inadvertent injury and mitigate the risk of transmitting blood borne pathogens.

DOT Regulations

The United States Department of Transportation (DOT) mandates training for employees packaging medical waste and offering it for shipping. Training should occur before the employee starts his or her job assignment as well as every three years thereafter.

Documentation Requirements

In addition to understanding what training requirements apply to your organization, it is also essential to have written verification that training occurred. This should include the date of training, name and qualifications of trainer, subject of training, and printed name, job title, and signature of the employee.

Your Protocol, Your Safety

Do your employees follow protocol for hospital waste disposal in your facility? Do you have a protocol? Secure Med can help with both. Our team can assist you in developing policies and procedures that will meet regulatory requirements and help you ensure that your staff is properly trained and everyone is safe. 

Contact us today to schedule a consultation and evaluation.

 

Clinical Waste

Understanding The Types of Clinical Waste

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If your organization generates medical waste, it is critical that you have a good understanding of the different types of clinical waste. About 85% of waste generated by the healthcare industry is unregulated. That means that 15% is regulated and requires proper handling, labeling, storage, transport and disposal. Mishandling regulated waste leaves you open to liability, regulator fines and can spread disease.

Clinical Waste - Secure Med

Medical Waste Categories

There are some variations in the definition of medical waste among regulatory agencies. Most federal and state agencies differentiate between common medical waste and those wastes with the potential for causing infection and that require special precautions.

Medical waste is generally categorized as:

  • regulated medical waste
  • infectious waste
  • biohazard waste

In some cases, state guidelines vary in their definition of what is “infectious.” While some states adopt definitions found in federal guidelines such as the EPA, OSHA, and DOT, others do not. It’s important to research your state’s guidelines to determine your clinical waste management requirements.

State Regulated Clinical Waste

The following are commonly regulated by states:

Pathological waste – Tissues, organs, body parts, and body fluids removed during surgery and autopsy.

Human blood and blood products – Waste blood, serum, plasma and blood products.

Cultures and stocks of infectious agents (microbiological waste) – Specimens from medical and pathology laboratories. Includes culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix. Also includes discarded live and attenuated vaccines.

Contaminated sharps – Contaminated hypodermic needles, syringes, scalpel blades, Pasteur pipettes, and broken glass.

Isolation waste – From hospitalized patients quarantined to protect others from communicable disease.

Contaminated animal carcasses, body parts and bedding – From animals intentionally exposed to pathogens in research or testing.

Pathology and Anatomy Wastes

All human anatomical wastes and all wastes that are human tissues, organs, or body parts removed by trauma, during surgery, autopsy, studies, or another hospital procedure, which is intended for disposal qualifies as pathological or anatomical waste. Both types are wastes derived from the human body, but pathological wastes are unique because they are typically samples from a laboratory setting used to identify a disease. Anatomical wastes, in contrast, are usually human organs, tissue and body parts, and may require special treatment under some state regulations.

Bulk Human Blood, Blood Products, Body Fluids or Other Infectious Material

This category includes bulk waste human blood, human blood components or products derived from blood including serum, plasma and other blood components, or bulk human body fluids as defined by OSHA. This includes samples of these fluids taken in hematology labs, as well as drainage from surgery, and urine or feces when visibly contaminated by blood.

Microbiological Waste

Microbiological waste includes cultures and stocks of infectious agents, and associated microorganisms. This can include discarded cultures, culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate and mix cultures, stocks, specimens, live and attenuated vaccines if they are likely to contain organisms pathogenic humans. These types of waste usually originates from clinical or research laboratory procedures involving communicable infectious agents.

Clinical Waste - Secure Med

Sharps

Items that can introduce infectious agent through the skin or that can easily penetrate the skin qualify as sharps. Sharps may have been used or are intended to be used in human or animal patient care or in medical, research, or industrial laboratories. They can include hypodermic needles, syringes, Pasteur pipettes, capillary tubes, broken glass, razor blades, and scalpel blades.

Sharps require special handling and packaging under both OSHA and DOT. Regulations vary from state to state so be sure to refer to your state’s guidelines for the storage and transportation sharps.

Clinical Waste Handling With Secure Med

Contact Secure Med for a free consultation. We can help you develop a waste management plan that will meet your regulatory obligations.

 

Sharps Bin - Secure Med LLC

4 Tips for Staying Sharp When Handling A Sharps Bin

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How many needles would you guess are used in the United States each year? 100 million? 500 million? According to the World Health Organization, approximately 16 billion injections are administered worldwide, which means almost 800 million needles are used each year in the US! Obviously, every sharps bin that facilitates the collection and disposal of these 200,000,000 needles every day are essential to fully understand and correctly utilize.

1 – Recognize the Risks

Realizing that accidental needle pricks from contaminated needles could cause infections and potentially life-threatening diseases helps reinforce the importance of properly collecting and disposing of all sharps in an approved sharps bin. These transmitted diseases most often include hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV/AIDS, however in rare circumstances, it is also possible to transmit other terrible illnesses such as herpes, malaria, tuberculosis, and others.

Healthcare providers and staff must take every possible precaution to protect themselves against accidental injury and exposure to potentially infectious blood-borne viruses by safely handling sharps after use. This includes being trained on appropriate collection and disposal of sharps and sharps bin and partnering with a professional medical waste disposal company.

Sharps Bin - Secure Med LLC

2 – Avoid Accidental Injuries

Accidental injuries can occur via cuts, needle pricks, or puncture injuries. Dangerous injuries and infections can also come from any kind of sharps waste, such as:

  • Lancets, scalpels, blades and razors
  • Broken medication ampoules, vials or other glassware contaminated with biohazardous substances such as body fluids, inoculate samples or culture mediums
  • Needles with or without syringes, including insulin pen needles.

Most needle stick injuries occur when attempting to recap needles, which is why you should never attempt to recap used needles prior to disposal. To avoid carrying around uncapped needles for any length of time, a sharps bin should be immediately accessible for discarding used needles.

Sharps waste should never be simply tossed into a regular garbage container or biohazard bag. Sanitation workers, medical staff or even patients could be poked with these sharps or come into contact with leaked liquids. Rather, a closable, rigid, plastic, puncture and leak proof container should be used and clearly labeled as the place for storing all sharps until disposal.

3 – Select a Sharps Bin

A sharps bin should be strategically selected to appropriately suit each specific use and placement in a medication room, resident room or medication cart. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provide guidelines regarding the various sizes and colors of sharps bins to choose from. These include red containers used for cytotoxic medications/sharps that should be incinerated upon disposal, and yellow containers are used for sharps that must be disinfected (or autoclaved) upon disposal.

Other important general safety guidelines to follow to ensure the proper selection and safe usage of sharps bins include:

  • Keep it in sight: The sharps bin in a room should be readily available and easily visible to doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers. It should be accurately color-coded and located at eye-level.
  • Keep it in reach: To avoid carrying uncapped needles or transporting potentially contaminated sharps waste any distance, the sharps bins should be immediately accessible from the site of use.
  • Size it right: The size or type of sharps bin used must be appropriately selected to accommodate for the typical amount of sharps waste generated each day in that location. For example, a one-quart sharps bin should hold up to approximately 500 needles or 36 insulin syringes.
  • The thicker the better: A sharps bin must be made of heavy-duty plastic that is solid enough to prevent any needles puncturing through the walls of the container.
  • No leaks allowed: Since needles, vials and other broken containers may have contain medicines or potentially dangerous liquids, every sharps bin must be fully leak-proof across the bottom and up the sizes. It should also be closable and sealable for transportation to disposal.
  • Safe and secure: Dropping a sharps bin could be catastrophic to the health and safety of anyone in the vicinity. For this reason, these containers must be solidly anchored to the wall or to the stable surface they are attached in order to remain upright and to prevent any spillage.

4 – Know Where It Goes

Once a sharps bin is three-fourths full, it should be removed from use and set aside for proper disposal by a professional medical waste disposal company such as SecureMed. The company picks up all full containers and provides new, empty containers in exchange. Each full sharps bin is delivered to a sterilization facility to be incinerated or autoclaved for complete and thoroughly safe destruction.

The secure medical waste company should then provide you with an authentic certificate of destruction that provides you with the peace of mind that comes with knowing you are compliant with the rules and regulations that serve to keep your staff and your patients safe.

Get more information about how you can secure your own ultimate peace of mind through partnering with SecureMed for your sharps bin management, today!

PHI Data - Secure Med LLC

Are You Aware of The Hazards of PHI Data Management

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How do you deliver the best in healthcare services without up-to-date and accurate patient information? You don’t. You have to have all the relevant and up to date information to identify, diagnose and treat a patient. You have to have it, which means you have to keep and it has to easily accessible, but hopefully only to the right people. Safely storing, accessing and distributing this information is critical. Failure to protect this PHI will inevitably be disastrous and can cause harm to the patients you are trying to help.

Consider the following three areas to help ensure that patient information and other protected data is safeguarded and handled properly:

HIPAA Compliance

It’s all about managing the flow of healthcare information. Electronic data collected in health records and though other information portals must be rigorously safeguarded, but so must the release of information. The distribution of this information is closely regulated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), which provides specific rules for the safeguarding of medical information.

Most likely everyone reading this is already painfully aware of the consequences of failure to comply with HIPAA rules and regulations. Failure to comply not only puts patient privacy at risk, but it can also carry a hefty price tag in fines for a healthcare organization. In 2017 the Department of Health and Human Services announced that wireless health services provider CardioNet agreed to a $2.5 million settlement regarding potential noncompliance with HIPAA Privacy and Security Rule when an employee’s laptop with PHI of 1,391 individuals was stolen.

Any medical device or object that can contain PHI data should be part of your risk management plan. Even if the patient information is not protected under HIPAA, it can still be sensitive and should be protected for the privacy and security of the patient. The most common and costly fines are caused by a lack of regular Risk Assessments and Risk Management Plans.

PHI Data - Secure Med LLC

Outside Attacks

Like most law breakers, cyber criminals are looking for the easiest route to the biggest score. Unprotected PHI data is a jackpot, and even in this day and age, there remains a great deal of unprotected data. The cost of healthcare related data breaches is over $5.6 billion each year and this number is only likely to increase.

The most common forms of cybersecurity threats in healthcare include the following:

Malware: Malicious software is created and distributed to damage a computer and damage or gather data.

Ransomware: Ransomware also compromises a computer or data, but the only way to regain access is to pay the attacker.

Phishing attacks: Phishing attacks are attempts to gain sensitive information through electronic communication, such as emails, that appear to be credible.

An often overlooked but growing threat to healthcare data is the hijacking of medical devices, such as dialysis machines, CT scanners, infusion pumps and medical ventilators. Essentially, anything electronic and attached to a network is at risk of infiltration.

PHI Data in Medical Waste

Personal Health Information exists on specimen cups, IV bags, pill bottles and other disposable items that can be improperly accessed if not handled and disposed of correctly. To truly protect patient data, healthcare organizations need to have policies in place to ensure that the storage, handling, transport and disposal of medical waste containing PHI is compliant.

Make certain that your organization has a compliance plan in place and that your staff is properly trained to insure compliance when handling, storing or transporting all types of regulated medical waste.

Secure Med can provide safe and secure transport and destruction of regulated medical waste and provide HIPAA and OSHA training for your organization. Get compliant today and avoid the liability of improper PHI management.

Medical waste disposal- Biohazard Bags - Secure Med LLC

The Clear Benefits of Biohazard Bags for Medical Waste

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Regulated medical waste and hazardous waste typically make up 15-20 percent of the total waste generated by health care facilities. Healthcare facilities can generate up to 25 pounds of waste per day per patient, according to Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals. That is an incredibly huge amount of waste being handled every day with the potential to spread infectious disease. Biohazard bags are just one small part of safe healthcare waste management, but here are a few reasons why they are so important.

Safety with biohazard bags

Biohazard bags “must be disposable and impervious to moisture, and have strength sufficient to preclude ripping, tearing, or bursting under normal conditions of usage and handling,” according to International Plastics. Unlike regular trash bags, biohazard bags are specially designed to ensure the safety of everyone who handles the waste.

More on Safety

Biohazard Bags - Secure Med LLC

Easy Identification

Regulations on biohazardous waste mandate that infectious waste be disposed of in specific types of bags and labeled clearly. “Biohazardous bags must be either RED or clear (orange bags are not allowed) and labeled with either the words ‘Biohazardous Waste,’ or with a biohazard symbol and the word ‘Biohazard,’” states International Plastics. “Clear biohazard bags are used for biohazardous waste that is not regulated. The Waste Management Group must document that a laboratory’s biohazardous waste is not regulated in order for a laboratory to use clear biohazard bags.” These visible warnings make biohazard bags easily identifiable as potentially hazardous. Medical waste management workers should be trained to recognize and properly handle biohazard bags.

Biohazard bags - Secure Med LLC

Compliance

Government agencies responsible for regulating medical waste include OSHA, EPA and DOT. These agencies require compliance by the use of red, clearly labeled biohazard bags for the collection of waste contaminated with blood or OPIM (Other Potentially Infectious Material). Healthcare facilities are responsible for the proper handling of medical waste from generation to storage, to transportation to disposal. “Your medical waste is still your responsibility and a liability once your waste leaves your facility.”

Healthcare facilities are liable for what happens to their waste even after it leaves the facility. Therefore it is important to use high quality waste transportation and destruction services. We compiled a list of 8 Questions to Ask Before You Sign a Medical Waste Disposal Contract. At SecureMed, we meet or exceed all safety and compliance regulations. We take our job seriously, so you can focus on yours with peace of mind.

Contact SecureMed today for a free quote in the Huntsville and Birmingham, Alabama region or visit our website for more information on secure medical waste management.

Proper Medical Waste Disposal is the Gift of Security

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Proper Medical Waste Disposal is the Gift of Security

With all the distractions and stress that typically accompanies the holiday season, it may be likely for some of your employees and co-workers to accidentally forget to appropriately follow medical waste safety protocols. It’s moments like these when the value of a professional medical waste disposal company comes to light.

“Ho, ho, ho…oh no”

According to OSHA regulations, (1910.1030(b)), Regulated Waste means “liquid or semi-liquid blood or other potentially infectious materials; contaminated items that would release blood or other potentially infectious materials in a liquid or semi-liquid state if compressed.” It further states that “items that are caked with dried blood or other potentially infectious materials are capable of releasing these materials during handling, contaminated sharps, and microbiological wastes containing blood or other potentially infectious materials.” Furthermore, OSHA says “the blood or body fluid can spill, splash, splatter or drip to get into an existing portal of entry” which in turn has the potential to infect.

The results of poor management systems for these kinds of waste that you must avoid can include:

  • Sharps-inflicted injuries
  • Toxic exposure to pharmaceutical substances
  • Air pollution
  • Thermal, chemical or radiation burns.

Regarding sharps, an infected needle stick injury has a 30-percent risk of the stick containing the Hepatitis-B virus, a 1.8-percent risk of Hepatitis-C, and a 0.3-percent risk of the stick being infected with HIV. Thus, best practice for medical waste disposal indicates that the red bags and boxes that serve as sharps containers should always be replaced with each service. This prevents sanitation concerns because infectious pathogens are harbored in the containers. Also, it avoids repackaging sharps and contaminated materials prior to transport.

‘Tis the Safe Medical Waste Disposal Season

Everyone is aware that illnesses and healthcare needs certainly don’t take that time off.  Surgeries, blood work, and other procedures that create medical waste continue as usual in facilities. This includes:

  • Hospitals
  • Labs and research hubs
  • Mortuary and autopsy centers
  • Blood banks and collection services
  • Nursing homes and assisted living locations.

By partnering with a secure medical waste disposal company that provides you with a certificate of destruction, you receive the peace of mind knowing that you’ll have a personalized waste-control strategy tailored specifically to your facility’s needs. Waste managers can quickly identify appropriate sizes and quantities of waste containers, collection boxes, and sharps boxes for each room. This method is employed over a “one-size-fits-most” approach.

A Gift that Keeps on Giving

Proper waste disposal reduces the risks of contamination to your staff, patients, community, public health and the environment. This includes the unintended release of chemical or biological hazards or drug resistant microorganisms. However, that does not cover all the positives this procedure provides. When you partner with a professional medical waste disposal company, you can avoid regulatory fines and publicly demonstrate your commitment to safety and environmental protection. This is an ongoing benefit to your company.

As we head into the new year, learn more about what you need to do to ensure you have a proper medical waste disposal agreement in place at your facility. Connect with SecureMed in the Greater Birmingham and Huntsville areas to get a free quote for complete, compliant, and reliable medical waste disposal. For more information, reach out to us on our website.