The need for medical waste disposal Fort Lauderdale is significant, especially when it comes to sharps waste, such as needles and scalpels. This need comes mostly from the fact that sharps, if they are left untreated or improperly disposed of, can be a great health hazard for the medical personnel, patients, medical waste handlers or the community as a whole.
The biggest risk from medical sharps comes from the fact that they can be infected with all manner of hazardous blood-borne viruses and can contract the person’s blood stream with the likes of HIV or Hepatitis B or C. Not to mention the stress of waiting for blood test results and fearing that you have contracted something dangerous and potentially incurable.
To prevent this scenario, sharps should be disposed of promptly after being used. Left unattended after treating a patient, or a surgical procedure, these medical instruments can do only harm. This is why they have to be disposed of not together with the regular waste, or even in red medical waste disposal plastic bags, like the rest of the solid infectious wastes, but rather in a special hard plastic container.
A sharps container has to be made of very durable material through which needles and other sharps can not cut or in which sharps cannot make a hole. Also, these receptacles need to be designed in such a way that they do not leak from either side. Finally, and this is the most important part, a sharps container must include a tight-fitting lid that prevents it from getting accidentally opened and that keeps the contents inside even in transportation.
More About the Sharps Disposal Regulations
One of the most important legislatives when it comes to sharps and consequently medical waste disposal is the HSE (Health and Safety) Regulation for Sharps Instruments in Health Care from 2013. It states:
“All employers are required under existing health and safety law to ensure that risks from sharps injuries are adequately assessed and appropriated control measures are in place. The Sharps Regulation build on the existing law and provides specific details on requirements that must be taken by health care employers and their contractors.”
What Employers Should Take Action Regarding Sharps Disposal?
The duty towards sharps disposal of an employer goes only so far if their primary activity is that of medicine and treating human beings or animals, or if he is a contractor working with the health care facility and has workers who handle infectious or hazardous wastes. A medical waste disposal company is a clear example of such.
The Use of Sharps Containers
Sharps containers need to be immediately available to medical workers who handle needles and other sharps for them to discard the used sharps in them promptly. One person, usually a younger technician or a nurse is assigned to the “sharps disposal duty” (among other things). He or she has to account for all sharps used and make sure they are properly placed inside a sharps container.
Following this, the receptacle is labeled if it wasn’t already and either sent to the autoclaving room, if there is one in the facility, it is stored to await a pick up from a registered medical waste disposal Fort Lauderdale company.
