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.

 

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!