Managing a health care clinic or a hospital can be fulfilling. Unfortunately, it comes with multiple challenges to overcome as well. Apart from people management and dealing with financial gains, proper treatment must be ensured for all patients. Sure, each line of treatment is different, and there are enormous quantities of waste generated by the hour. Most of these can be extremely hazardous with the power to spread deadly infections. You must be determined to protect the employees along with the patients within your facility, therefore. It is important to utilize proper methods of hospital waste disposal that comply with safety regulations.
Simply throwing away the hazardous wastes by placing them in a conventional trash bin is a strict no-no. Proper collection and segregation according to the type of hazard are recommended here. Moreover, it is imperative to consider the following by checking the standards:
Treatment
The disposal of hazardous waste products needs to follow certain rules. For one, you cannot dispose of it as it is for it has the potential of spreading pathogens and infecting multitudes. The proven way to reduce the virility is to have the wastes treated by employing special methods. Some of the processes that have proved to b most effective include:
Autoclave-This machine produces a copious amount of steam that helps to sterilize the item. Admittedly, the device is often used to sterilize surgical equipment and diagnostic tools but its role is no less for rendering the hospital wastes inactive either. The used containers that have been contaminated as well as PPE kits go through autoclaving before being disposed
Disinfection with Chemicals– This is the best-suited method for sterilizing chemical and liquid waste products generated within a medical facility. The process uses chlorine with the quantity and effectiveness being determined by the concentrations of microorganisms in the wastes as well as the level of contamination.
Irradiation– This is identical to the operation of a microwave oven. The contaminated items are shredded carefully and mixed with water with the mixture being heated to eliminate all biological infectants.
Incineration– This is the treatment of choice for all pathological and pharmaceutical wastes generated within the facility. The cytotoxic wastes i.e. the wastes generated after chemotherapy are disposed of by this method too. The standards for disposal of hospital wastes are to utilize a quality incinerator that generates heat at a temperature reaching 2,000 degrees F on an average
Recycling
While most wastes generated inside a hospital or medical facility are disposed of completely after sterilization, there are a few items that may be recycled after being neutralized with proven methods of hospital waste disposal.
- Newspapers
- Office Stationery
- Glass bottles
- Metal cans and food storage containers
- Plastic containers
There is no reason to be anxious about contamination by the mentioned product though. World Health Organization (WHO) has revealed that almost 85% of wastes generated regularly by medical facilities and huge hospitals happen to be non-hazardous.
You cannot dispose of items by experimenting freely, however. Get in touch with one of the top medical waste disposal companies in your vicinity to ensure compliance with safety standards.
