How To Manage Waste To Reduce Medical Waste Disposal Costs
Garbage is garbage, right? Wrong.
Your medical practice is paying thirteen times the cost for regulated medical waste disposal compared to municipal waste charges.
The amount of healthcare waste is growing. Environmental regulations are getting tougher and tougher. You have to be compliant with all the regulations. No compromise.
Compromising on not following all the hazardous waste and health and safety laws means you are putting your staff, patients and the general public at risk. The pathogens you could release into the environment are deadly.
So, how do you minimize the amount of “regulated” medical waste disposal costs in a highly regulated environment?
Reduce Medical Waste Disposal Costs:
If you truly want to reduce unnecessary costs you will need to get your staff organized and make a plan.
Focus on what you can control. Put the proper waste disposal containers in a convenient place and put a big sign on it. Train your staff…constantly.
Separate bio-hazardous (red bag) waste from the rest. You’ll be surprised to find that as much as 85 percent of hospital or clinical waste is simply trash that can be processed by the municipality so, for the most part, if your staff cooperates with the plan you come up with, you don’t have to pay the relatively expensive medical waste disposal fees for most of the waste in your medical practice.
Use biohazard red waste bags for the following
- – Fluid blood
- – Blood saturated items
- – Bags and IV tubing containing blood products
- – Suction canisters
- – Hemovacs
- – Chest drainage units
- – Hemodialysis products
Set Up A Streamlined Medical Waste Management Process:
Educate your staff on what goes in the red bags. Set goals and do waste assessments and monitor proper use of red waste disposal bags. Unless visibly soiled with blood, the following items DO NOT belong in red bag trash:
Bed pans
Empty specimen containers
Dressings and gauze
Diapers / Incontinence pads
Splints
Masks, gowns, gloves
Tapes
Cotton
Suction tubing
Vent tubing
Emesis basins
Urinals
Paper towels
IV bags
Casts and splints
Packaging materials
Foley bags and catheters
Alcohol preps
Used food service items
Used paper towels and tissues
Other things you can do to reduce medical waste disposal costs:
Do a medical waste disposal audit several times a year. Track progress and reward success.
Strategically place red bags and bins where they are needed and take them away from where they are not needed.
Implement a reusable sharps container program. Syringes, needles, blades, scalpels, lancets, broken glass, and any other contaminated sharp object should be placed in sharps containers.
Reduce red bag and red medical waste containers by improving efficiency in processes.
Provide the correct size of waste disposal containers in the right places.
Reduce the frequency of waste disposal pick up by consolidating waste whenever possible.
GIC Medical Disposal is a full service medical waste management company. We can help you do a complete audit of your medical waste disposal processes, set up protocols and train your staff. Of course, we also provide all the waste disposal bags and containers you would need.
Call for a quote and experience the difference great service can mean to your peace of mind and bottom line.
