Getting Started With Clinical Waste Management
To manage the clinical waste generated by your practice, you should look at these four steps: Segregation, Separation at source, Treatment, and Cost of clinical waste business. By following these steps, you can be assured that your commercial waste is disposed of properly. To learn more, read the following paragraphs. Getting started with clinical waste management can be easy once you know the basics of the clinical waste business. Please click here for more information and pricing on commercial waste.
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Listed below are the most important steps to follow.
What is clinical waste?
Clinical waste may contain:
used syringes, needles or sharps
blood or bodily fluids
drugs or pharmaceutical products
used swabs or dressings
Segregation
In addition to reducing costs, the segregation of hospital waste streams can help reduce the carbon footprint of the healthcare system . Although many busy hospitals may think placing multiple commercial waste streams into the same containers is more accessible, they may not fully understand their difference. They may believe that all hospital waste goes to incineration. This may cause additional costs and damage sustainability goals. Instead, hospitals should segregate commercial waste by type, colour, and content to achieve the best environmental results.
Waste segregation aims to prevent contamination and health risks from healthcare waste. Healthcare waste should be disposed of in facilities with appropriate licences, permits, and authorisations. The facility should also have clear information about the different types of waste and how to dispose of each properly. It is also helpful to post posters about the different waste streams and types to remind staff of the proper disposal methods.
Further, the healthcare facility should provide staff with appropriate training to comply with waste segregation rules of commercial waste. Ideally, waste should be collected in colour-coded bins. However, waste bin liners are unavailable in some hospitals, and wards do not have consistent liners for each bin. In the worst cases, hospital staff have no idea where to place their waste, as their use of the waste bins varies.
In addition, some staff do not know how to distinguish between clinical and non-clinical waste . Although the clinical staff at Bwindi Community Hospital knew the importance of waste management, the non-clinical staff had less knowledge about waste management. This was partly because there was little insight into the correct person or departmental practices. As a result, the hospital did not properly segregate clinical waste at the point of generation.
Furthermore, non-clinical staff involved in waste management were generally unaware of the risks involved in their roles. These included improperly using personal protective equipment and chemicals that posed a risk to water sources. The Federal Ministry of Health’s guidelines for HCWM practice suggest segregating HCWs into three compartments:
clinical,
non-clinical,
and toxic.
In a study involving five hospitals in the Bale zone, the authors evaluated their segregation practices. They identified several factors that correlate with their healthcare waste segregation practices.
How To Dispose of Clinical Waste
To safely dispose of these waste types, you should separate them from the source.
Clinical waste bins can be categorised into the following colours:
Colour coded bins
Yellow
Red
Orange
Purple
White
Blue
Yellow & Black
Black
Infectious waste is to be disposed of immediately
Anatomical waste (hazardous and non-hazardous)
Infectious waste which is sent for treatment
Cytostatic and cytotoxic medicinal products such as sharps
Dental waste
Medicinal waste such as part empty containers, out-of-date medicine etc
Non-infectious/hazardous hygiene waste
The EPA defines infectious waste as any waste with pathogens in sufficient quantity or virulence to cause infection. Blood-soaked bandages, surgical gloves, instruments, and body fluids are included among these wastes. Other types of waste include:
Chemicals,
Disinfectants, and
Expired drugs.
The study found that two-thirds of nurses could distinguish between MW and general waste. This is an indicator of proper waste management.
Nurses also showed higher knowledge about MW categorisation than the general population. In addition, nurses attend more training than other professions. Nursing students are regularly sent to capacity-building sessions organised by the Lagos waste management authority. Besides, they receive more training in medical waste management than any other group. Medical and commercial waste is usually placed in separate plastic bins.
Medical, and commercial waste containing sharp or anatomical objects must be stored in plastic containers. S eparation at the destination for clinical waste requires separating containers from other waste types to avoid confusion and tampering. For example, sharp spins containing syringes go into a separate container . Despite the various methods of separating medical waste, the World Health Organization (WHO) has published a study that shows that hospital employees have adequate knowledge about waste categorisation.
They also agree that segregation at the source is necessary and that safety boxes are used to collect sharp waste. However, the study found that responses varied from hospital to hospital, but 83 per cent of respondents believed that medical waste results from a patient’s diagnosis. Medical waste can cause environmental contamination and spread pathogens. Many developed countries have introduced complete regulatory programmes to combat this issue.
Swabs and surgical dressings are familiar sources of contamination that can lead to needle-stick injuries and cuts. Not only can clinical waste pose a health risk to patients, but improperly managed waste can also be harmful to waste handlers, workers, and the public . That’s why it’s essential to have appropriate procedures for adequately handling clinical business waste. In a recent healthcare facility staff survey, researchers found that only 28% of the waste was adequately categorised as hazardous.
The rest was compostable waste from food preparation. Even though clinical staff were highly aware of the hazards associated with clinical waste, this awareness did not translate into proper waste segregation and onsite transportation. Non-clinical staff, on the other hand, were less aware of the risks associated with their roles . These staffs were at risk of infection due to the improper use of personal protective equipment, and the chemicals they were handling posed a health risk to the public, including water sources.
Chemical disinfection involves adding chemicals to clinical waste, usually pretreated shredded to maximise the contact between the chemicals and the waste. However, the downside of this process is that it does not eliminate the hazardous residuals present in the clinical waste. Additionally, it is ineffective at treating waste containing cytotoxic drugs or human tissue. Aside from being ineffective in these cases, chemical disinfection is also unsuitable for most pathological wastes.
In a recent study, high-level, experienced experts compared two types of medical waste treatment: offsite and onsite. Offsite treatment was rated higher than onsite treatment on most criterion variables. Offsite treatment has fewer drawbacks than onsite treatment. And it has more benefits than downsides. In short, it is better for the environment than not treating clinical waste at all.
Cost of the clinical waste business
The American hospital system generates approximately 7,000 tons of waste each day, and medical facilities spend more than £10 billion annually on disposal. The American Hospital Association published a report on waste prevention and management in 2015 . This waste management is critical because its demand is increasing at an unprecedented rate. In the United States, medical waste is regulated under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, while the Environmental Protection Agency regulates the European Union.
This study provides important insight into how much medical waste costs and outlines the benefits and challenges of waste management. Medical waste is generated in healthcare facilities, such as physician’s offices, hospitals, dental practices, clinics, and research facilities. The study showed that reducing the amount of waste produced in healthcare facilities could save £191 billion to £282 billion each year, or about 25 per cent of the total cost.
Unfortunately, there are few interventions to reduce administrative waste. This is probably because efforts to reduce administrative waste are often made within businesses and aren’t widely shared. Shrank hopes that the results of this study will spur better, more widespread sharing of information between hospitals and other types of organisations. Reusing and recycling supplies reduces hospital costs. But hospitals aren’t always able to reprocess supplies and open packages.
In addition, 52 per cent of healthcare facilities reported that they didn’t have a system to return them to central supplie s. Having a system for multiple waste streams isn’t enough. Diverting supplies to programs like PWH requires separate storage space, staff training, and different vendors. It is crucial to understand the costs of medical waste management and find an experienced and familiar partner with federal and state laws.
An experienced partner can guide you through the legal and regulatory requirements and lower your overall costs while not sacrificing safety. It is essential to remember that medical waste management is not cheap, and finding a solution that’s affordable and sustainable for your medical centre is essential.
The following companies dispose of clinical waste in the UK:
Clinical Waste Management – Learn more about UK business waste statistics here
Other useful links from our Commercial Waste Centre
Why Should Your Business Go Paperless?
Choosing a Garage Waste Management Service
Developing an EMS for Hazardous Waste
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