Single-use Medical Devices: To Reuse or Toss?

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. That is the EPA’s motto for protecting our environment, but this adage doesn’t always apply to the medical waste field.

Medical waste, and more specifically, regulated medical waste (RMW), has a different set of rules when it comes to disposal and reusing because of the very nature of this type of waste. The Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988 clearly defines items that fall under this category, including potentially infectious materials. One of the more debated topics in the medical waste removal field, however, is how to process single-use medical devices.

The term itself is a bit of a misnomer; to label a device as single-use is at the sole discretion of the manufacturer. The FDA doesn’t exactly make it much clearer what constitutes a single-use device.  An institution that reuses a single-use device should be able to prove that the device can be properly cleaned and sterilized, that the physical characteristics or quality of the device will not be compromised, and that the device remains safe and effective for the intended clinical use.

What, specifically, is considered a single-use device? The FDA has an exhaustive list of items, each broken out into different classes. Each class represents a risk, I being low risk and II being medium risk. The U.S. FDA Class I non-invasive devices include sequential compression sleeves, tourniquet cuffs, and pulse oximeter sensors, whereas Class II includes surgical devices including Ear, Nose and Throat microdebriders and cautery electrodes. Class III is not currently recommended for reprocessing due to the nature of the risk.

Reprocessing is strictly an economic choice, but we’ve come a long way since one-use devices came to be in the 1970s. With the advent of HIV, newer materials, and other communicable diseases, many hospitals have switched to the idea that certain devices should only be single-use.

The takeaway here is that the kind of device will determine whether it’s reprocessed or treated as medical waste and disposed of.

Fast Facts

MedXwaste can help your facility understand the ins and outs of single-use devices and how to properly deal with them. We can help you maintain compliance by controlling potential infection caused by reprocessed SUDs. Our OSHA training program will give you the tools to manage every aspect of OSHA compliance. With our reduced costs, there is not a more complete & affordable program for your facility.

Contact MedXwaste today to speak to a representative about our services and programs.

Medical Waste Management for Funeral Homes

Healthcare facilities like hospitals, dental clinics, nursing homes, and physicians’ offices generate a large amount of daily medical waste.  Less talked about producers of medical waste include tattoo parlors and funeral homes, both of which deal with instruments that come in contact with bodily fluids and other regulated medical waste.

Funeral home staff members work with deceased human beings who can harbor a myriad of diseases, both communicable and non-communicable.  It is essential for every funeral home to correctly manage their waste, for health and regulatory reasons.

The embalming process is considered a medical procedure; for arterial embalming, the blood is removed from the body through the veins and replaced with an embalming solution through the arteries. The embalming solution is usually a combination of formaldehyde, glutaraldehyde, methanol, ethanol, phenol, and water. The waste that is generated from the embalming process is considered medical waste and must be dealt with according to state and federal laws.

Working with the insides of a human body can expose staff to biohazardous material. It is imperative that funeral homes discard disposable objects that contact the body in a clearly marked biohazard container and take suitable precautions to protect everyone that comes into contact with the materials.

Examples of materials used in a funeral home or mortuary that are considered medical waste include:

There are certain safety practices during the embalming process that must be used to keep staff safe, including:

Each funeral director bears personal responsibility for the proper disposal of the waste generated, as required by federal, state, and local law.

MedXwaste services funeral homes in the state of New York and Florida, taking the utmost care and respect for the nature of the funeral business. MedXwaste promises to provide excellent customer service with flexible pickup schedules, as well as compliance training for your staff.

MRSA, Zika, & Ebola: Medical Waste Removal With Emerging Pathogens

In the last few years, there have been many alarming headlines about emerging pathogens, from Ebola, to MRSA, and now the Zika virus. While the news may cause concern for many, there are policies, processes, and laws in place to help control and mitigate risks with infectious waste. Understanding the statistics, prevention methods, and the laws as outlined by the CDC and other governing bodies can help to ease these concerns.

Healthcare facilities that treat patients with infectious disease are focused on the broader picture when it comes to medical waste removal. The goal is always the same, and that’s to protect patients and the community from harm.

MRSA

Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus, or MRSA for short, is tough to treat because it is resistant to commonly used antibiotics.

With MRSA, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure. According to the CDC, “…disinfectants effective against Staphylococcus aureus or staph are most likely also effective against MRSA. These products are readily available from grocery stores and other retail stores. Check the disinfectant product’s label on the back of the container.”

The CDC also recommends good hygiene to prevent MRSA. From its website:

While MRSA is serious, statistics show that it is on the decline, and that is thanks to good sanitation and medical waste removal processes. Invasive MRSA infections that began in hospitals declined 8 percent between 2011 and 2013.

Ebola Virus

According to the CDC, there were four laboratory-confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease diagnosed in humans in the United States as of December 2014.

While statistically low, the severity of the virus is not to be taken lightly, and the CDC’s procedures put in place are the reason that treatment and the prevention of spreading Ebola have been successful.

Designated areas are recommended for Ebola patients to prevent contamination elsewhere. From the CDC:

Zika Virus

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), “from 1 January 2007 to 6 April 2016, Zika virus transmission was documented in a total of 62 countries and territories.”

It is considered an emerging virus.

The CDC reports that the number of cases in the United States is fairly small; as of April 2016, there have been only 358 documented patients, all of which were travel-related.

Currently, there are no specific antiviral treatments for Zika, nor is there a vaccine to prevent it. This is why prevention is important. Proper medical waste management, which includes laboratory waste management and syringe and sharps disposal, are also essential safeguards against the spread of disease.

The list of procedures, processes, and safe-handling instructions are long and complex, but medical waste professionals are equipped to help healthcare facilities deal with emerging pathogens. MedXwaste’s OSHA compliance program can help your facility understand the ins and outs of medical waste removal as it pertains to Ebola and these other diseases.

Contact MedXwaste today to discuss an OSHA training program for your facility, and to learn about our equipment and routine services to remove pathogenic waste to keep you and your communities healthy.

 

Improper Disposal of Medication is Costly to Health and Environment

Prescription and over-the-counter medication, while helpful and necessary for health care, can be harmful to people, animals, and the environment if not disposed of properly.

Reliable and concrete statistics are hard to come by, but it’s a safe assumption that we, as consumers, are responsible for a hefty percentage of the pharmaceutical and personal care products that wind up in lakes, rivers, and streams. In a typical U.S. household, the medicine cabinet is full of unused and expired drugs, only a fraction of which get disposed of appropriately.

Going back as far as early 2000, a U.S. Geological Survey found perceptible amounts of one or more medications in 80 percent of  water samples drawn from a network of 139 streams in 30 states.

There’s really not much question that improper pharmaceutical waste disposal continues, but there are measures that everyone can take collectively to mitigate the environmental impact.

Don’t flush it or toss it

This is the very least step that we as consumers can do to help minimize what we put in the environment. While the FDA has and still recommends flushing certain medications, the best course of action is to research a take-back program. Law enforcement, public health, and environmental professionals feel that these programs are the safest and most responsible way to dispose of unwanted and expired medicines to protect your family and to protect our waters.

The same goes for tossing medication in the trash. It is not recommended to just place unused medication in a garbage can, rather add cat litter, coffee grounds, or some other unappealing material in an effort to cut down on the chances that a child or animal might eat the contents.

Rather than gamble with the environment and the health of our communities, it is best to speak with a medical waste removal agent, like MedXwaste about disposing unused and unwanted medications.

Limit how much and how often you purchase drugs

While volume discounts are attractive for their cost-saving measures, purchasing medications in bulk often leads to a surplus of unused medication that will need disposal. Find ways to purchase prescription and OTC medications that are easy on your wallet, but also easy on the environment.

There are several things we can do as individuals to limit pharmaceutical pollution, and MedXwaste can help you and your communities navigate this often complex and confusing subject.

Call us today to learn about our training programs and medical waste removal packages.

It’s National Smile Month. How’s the Health of Your Dental Office?

 

Along with ringing in Summer and schools letting out, there’s a reason for several million smiles across the country this time of year: it’s National Smile Month. National Smile Month is an oral health campaign to raise awareness of important health issues, and that includes maintaining our pearly whites.

Beyond proper dental hygiene and maintenance for patients, it’s a good time for dental offices to reflect on the health and well-being of their offices, too, specifically how dental medical waste is dealt with and disposed of.

Dental offices are subject to a variety of federal, state, and local regulations concerning the safe handling of their waste materials.

According to Dentistry Today, there are several types of regulated medical waste in dental offices. These require special handling, and include pathologic waste, like exfoliated or extracted teeth, used sharps, such as injection needles, scalpel blades, instruments, burs, and broken contaminated glass, and potential sharps, such as anesthetic carpules.

Much like other medical waste, dental waste must be segregated. Regulated medical waste must be placed into appropriately designed containers, usually red biohazard bags or sharps boxes. Examples of regulated waste found in dental-practice settings are solid waste soaked or saturated with blood or saliva, extracted teeth, surgically removed hard and soft tissues, and contaminated sharp items. Used gloves, masks, and gowns are not considered regulated dental waste, therefore do not need to be segregated into containers.

Dental waste isn’t exclusive to needles, sharps, and other instruments. Dentists deal with amalgam fillings, a combination of metals that have been the most popular and effective filling material used in dentistry. According to the Organization for Safety, Asepsis and Prevention (OSAP),  “waste amalgam should be collected in the dental office for recycling by a licensed recycling facility.”

Other dental waste items include, but are not limited to:

MedXwaste works with dental offices to help manage and dispose of dental medical waste. Our OSHA Compliance Program can help your office prepare for safety audits, design a safety plan builder, as well as keep you informed on all state and federal regulations.

While National Smile Month reminds us to maintain good oral hygiene, it’s as good a time as any for dental offices to go beyond the smile and keep their staff, patients, and communities, safe, too. The campaign encourages participation at any level by dental practices, and that should include safe and secure dental medical waste removal.