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.

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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.

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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.

 

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.