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Medical waste management in Miami Beach cannot be considered complete without appropriate disposal of it. There are several methods and techniques used to dispose of medical waste, some of which we will talk about in this article.
First, however, we need to fully understand the role of OSHA in medical waste disposal. This organization (OSHA stands for Occupational Safety and Health Administration) instructs that all health care personnel, such as doctors, veterinarians, physicians and others dispose of sharps in special containers before they proceed with disposing of materials in medical waste boxes. Sharp containers need to be puncture-resistant, leak-proof, closable and finally, color-coded. In addition, OSHA necessitates that reusable containers are inspected and decontaminated on a regular basis.
In-House or External Medical Waste Disposal
There are two ways hospitals, laboratories and other similar facilities in Miami Beach can process their medical waste. They can do so either in-house or they can send the waste to a qualified, local waste management agency.
In terms of cost-effectiveness, in-house medical waste disposal is often the better of these two, but only for large facilities. Small clinics, vet clinics, labs and other health care providers still need to hire an external company to handle their medical waste.
Apart from the financial reasons, external medical waste disposal is also used by facilities that simply generate larger amounts of medical waste, so in-house medical waste disposal would not be a sound financial choice for them.
In many states, medical waste first has to be made completely indistinguishable before it can be transported via special vehicles to a designated landfill. One of the ways to make medical waste unrecognizable is to treat it with an in-house incinerator. These commonly take about an hour and a half to completely transform medical waste material into ash. Once the incinerator does its part with medical waste, the subsequent ash can be shipped to a landfill. Incinerators are made and used in all sizes, including small for doctor’s offices and large for hospitals.
There are also other methods of medical waste disposal in Miami Beach that can be used, either in-house or by an external waste management company. One of them is steam sterilization. This method exposes medical waste to highly pressurized steam, thus destroying any microorganisms on it. Bleach or chemical processing can also be used to begin the process of medical waste management
External Miami Beach medical waste disposal companies contracted by hospitals and other health care facilities, pick up medical waste, treat it, with heat, bleach, steam or in some other way or process it into ash using their own incinerators, before sending the waste to the assigned landfill.
