It is commonplace to find multiple medicines placed by the side of a patient admitted to a hospital or any medical facility. While consuming the lifesaving drugs, as well as other medicines, go a long way in enhancing treatment, very few pay attention to the empty strips of medicine or wonder what is going to become of the medicines that remain unused. It is important to have proper and foolproof pharmaceutical waste management in hospitals and other places that are known to provide effective treatment.
Sure, health care providers remain busy attending to many important tasks during their working hours. Yet, paying heed to the proper disposal of pharmaceutical waste is not to be taken lightly either. While the task itself may not sound too exciting yet complying with the safety norms and ensuring swift and effective disposal is of paramount importance. Doing it as per the rules can help to safeguard human life and keep the environment clean at the same time.
Sadly, most of the staff members in a facility tend to be overworked and too tired to attend to disposal systems by taking care of its management. It becomes necessary to hire a competent waste disposal company to take on this onus and save the concerned facility from having its license revoked or tarnishing its reputation on account of an inadvertent error in waste disposal methods.
Taking such a step can prove to be a Godsend as most working staff at the facility are not particularly trained in waste management procedures. The team of professionals who have the task outsourced to them is definitely to be well informed about the following:
Need for Professional Waste Disposal
- A drug or chemical that is dropped or spilled accidentally cannot be swept or mopped to render the area harmless. Instead, it is essential to clean the floor perfectly with sanitization being a part of the clean-up. The pill, capsule, or liquid medicine remains a pharmaceutical waste and must be disposed of according to the standard regulations.
- A majority of patients forget to carry some of the medicines back home once they are discharged. The professional team is definite to collect the discarded medicines and have them disposed of as needed.
- Administration of drugs is a skilled task that only trained technicians are allowed to handle. However, injection syringes and IV tubes may contain remnants of the drug used. Reusing them after a single wash is not the right way to eliminate bio-hazards. The team takes contingence of the fact and has the seemingly empty items collected, treated, and stored properly before transporting them for disposal.
- Disposal of Arsenic trioxide, physostigmine, Warfarin, and nicotine must be done with care. Only the trained personnel would be well aware of the significance of the dangers. Apart from the empty vials, strips, and injection syringes even the empty packaging is considered to be bio-hazard and is disposed of according to the mandated guidelines.
It is best to outsource the onerous task of pharmaceutical waste management in hospitals to an experienced team of professionals that are recognized for quick and effective waste disposal services. Storing them within the facility for days can be prohibitive and hazardous for health.
It is important to prevent exposure to the bio-hazards emanating from the wastes to avoid deadly infections. This is important for both the workers within the facilities as well as the patients/visitors. Hiring a well-reputed company to take care of the disposal from start to finish can enable the management of the said facility to keep the area free from infectant despite the regular generation of bio-medical wastes.
Waste disposal from a medical facility must be done by following four specific steps, each of which is of paramount importance:
Collection & Segregation– You must be well aware of what needs to be collected and kept away from common areas. It is best o let the professionals deal with this as they are sure to have the required skills. Identification of each type of waste is vital as they would have to be retained in specific-colored containers so that there is no mix-up during disposal. It is interesting to note that each color indicates a specific type of waste stored within it. The personnel adept at collection and storage will be able to tell the following:
