Are you wondering how you would dispose of your medical waste without contaminating your other wastes? Want to make sure your hospital does this practice properly? Ensure that they are following these guidelines and you can be sure that they are doing the right job.
With hospitals in the US producing over 5.9 million tons of medical waste every single year.
With almost 33 pounds of waste produced per staffed bed, these can add up to incredible amounts.
Out of this amount, 85 % is considered to be nonhazardous while the remaining 15 % consists of materials that might be infectious, toxic, or radioactive.
What is Medical Waste?
Biomedical waste is a type of biowaste. Biomedical waste or hospital waste is any kind of waste that contains infectious or potentially infectious material. It may also include waste associated with the generation of biomedical waste that visually appears to be of medical or laboratory origin ( e.g. packaging, unused bandages, infusion kits, etc ), as well research laboratory waste containing biomolecules or organisms that are mainly restricted from environmental release.
Discarded sharps ( i.e syringes ) are also considered biomedical waste whether they are contaminated or not, due to the possibility of being contaminated with blood and their propensity to cause injury when not properly contained and disposed of.
Simply put, the primary applications of waste disposal in a medical institution is to prevent infections and to reduce the amount of clutter. It attempts to prevent the damage caused by medically hazardous waste from being released into the environment.
Some of the possible outcomes include sickness, death, or even massive pandemics like the one we see today.
What is Medical Waste Disposal?
The process of taking biomedical waste out of hospitals and destroying or recycling them is what constitutes medical waste disposal. This can be long and quite expensive at times involving the use of specialized machinery and tools which are not normally found in hospitals or ordinary waste disposal sites.
This procedure is sometimes done with the help of external agencies that help you go about such a task with relative ease, such as Daniels Health Medical Waste disposal. Hiring such a company can significantly shorten the effort required to dispose of your waste.
What are the Types of Waste?
There are multitudes of different types of wastes produced by a medical institution. This may range between hazardous, partly hazardous, and non-hazardous. Here is a simple list to help you differentiate between the types of wastes:
- Sharps disposal: With much safer handling standards using higher quality and thicker containers, the sharps can be moved and cleaned without any damage to human hands, as they simply rely on robotic help.
- Regulated Medical Waste ( RMW ) disposal: With customer focussed biohazardous waste containers, you can be sure that your waste is taken care of on a regular basis without the involvement of any third parties along with hundreds of other establishments across America.
- Chemotherapy disposal: Just like any other form of waste, cytotoxic waste is also a major concern for healthcare workers across the country. With Daniels providing reusable containment for chemotherapy disposal and some of the best safety standards, why would you not choose it?
- Pharmaceutical disposal: With pharmaceuticals expiring ever so often, there becomes a need to dispose of these wastes fast and efficiently, with tamper-proof disposal systems, you can rest assured that no one will attempt to consume or take these.
- Pathological disposal: When it comes to disposing of pathological or anatomical waste, Daniels has got you covered with some of the best, cleanest, and fastest disposal systems in the country, you can keep your medical premise as clean as it has to be.
- Hazardous or RCRA disposal: When it comes to hazardous substances and waste disposal, they are experts. With high safety standards, you can be sure that none of the staff or anybody else is going to have to risk coming into contact with these.
How To Properly Handle Medical Waste?
Handling medical waste requires the use of the right protective gear such as masks and disposable rubber gloves. Wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) will prevent the hands from getting in contact with medical waste products that are potentially hazardous. Learn more here about nitrile gloves, which are commonly used in most industries today, especially in the medical field.
When disposing of medical waste, handle them as far away from your body as possible, and make sure they’re packed securely and that there’s nothing dripping or sticking out. When done, remove clothing, gloves, boots, and other PPEs that came in contact with the waste. Avoid contact with any exposed skin surfaces. Use high-quality gloves to remove other clothing. All contaminated PPEs must be placed in leakproof containers or bags for decontamination or disposal.
The recommended medical waste treatment methods include incineration, gas sterilization, autoclaving, chemical disinfection, thermal inactivation, and irradiation. Autoclaving uses a heated container to eliminate medical waste. It’s one of the most effective methods in treating biohazard wastes.
Healthcare facilities ideally have a solid waste management plan in place. Safety protocols should be followed at all times. Medical wastes can be a major culprit in transmitting disease, so it’s important to hire experienced janitorial or cleaning professionals to handle medical wastes.
When it comes to customer safety and efficient disposal systems there are not many other companies that can perform as well as them. Fast, timely, and efficient while also ensuring the best safety standards around, you’ve found the best.
