Medical Waste Articles

Most people grow up knowing what blood is, never giving it a second thought. It’s only when you reach adulthood that it becomes clear just how much of a life-giving role blood plays in our systems. In and of itself, blood is neither safe nor unsafe, but waste that consists of blood and blood products is a different story.

Most people who work within the healthcare industry, whether they are clinical staff or in administrative positions, are aware that red waste bags are specially made to isolate certain types of medical waste. These are waste products that can pose an infection hazard should they be mixed with regular trash that is likely to end up in the local landfill. However, the rules on medical waste disposal can be confusing, and things can get murky when it comes to determining just which waste products belong in these bags and which do not.

Every medical facility administrator knows that medical waste requires proper management to ensure safety of the general population, animals, and the environment. Compliance with local, state, and federal regulations are an important part of the job function.

As a manager in a medical office or clinic, you are certainly aware of the risks to your staff posed by medical waste, as well as the OSHA regulations that address that risk. Complying with OSHA’s guidelines for medical waste management in the workplace is essential to minimizing risks to employees, protecting their health and safety. It is also essential to protecting your facility against the legal and financial consequences of compliance mistakes. To make things a bit easier, here are a few important steps to help ensure OSHA medical waste compliance in your workplace.

In this day and age, nearly everyone knows that the hypodermic needles used to give injections belong in sharps containers when it comes time to discard them. That simple fact has become common knowledge over recent years, even among people who are not in the healthcare field. However, what is murkier in the minds of many – even medical professionals, medical office managers and other support staff – is what, besides those needles, should be disposed of in these specialized containers. Here we’ll help clear the confusion by outlining what else should go in sharps containers in order to ensure compliance with medical waste management best practices.

Managing the day-to-day operations of a medical clinic is no walk in the park, as any administrator or office manager knows only too well. There’s lots of moving parts to manage every day, and it’s your job to meld all of them into one, very well-oiled machine. Many of the tasks that make things move along smoothly are delegated to others, but in the end, if there are problems, responsibility for them comes straight back to you.

If you're responsible for dealing with the collection, segregation, labeling, packaging, and disposal of medical waste, it's important that you fully understand Alabama's medical waste disposal regulations. 

Is chemotherapy a medical waste, or is it managed as hazardous waste? Which container and labeling should you use? Proper disposal is one of the biggest day-to-day challenges you face. It's often complicated by other concerns like state and local regulations, HIPAA, and potential litigation exposure. 

Medical facilities, ranging from small medical offices to large healthcare facilities, are regulated medical waste generators. That means that they are responsible for handling that waste responsibly and in compliance with federal and state regulations. Facilities are responsible for their medical waste from the time it is generated straight through until it is treated and is no longer hazardous to the public or the environment. This “cradle to grave” liability comes with strict rules on creating and keeping records of the medical waste management process. So what do you need to know about record keeping requirements to keep your practice/facility on the right side of those rules?

For the administrator or office manager who is in charge of keeping all the medical waste management ducks in a row for her employer’s clinic or practice, keeping on top of employee medical waste compliance training is essential to that process. After all, failing to meet training requirements can have consequences. Poor training can endanger employees and the environment, and it can cost your employer dearly should a lapse in training standards result in citations and fines. So what do you need to know to ensure that everyone gets all the training they must have to keep your employer in line with federal and state requirements?