Everything You Ever Need to Know About Managing Sharps Waste
While working in the healthcare setting, it’s essential to be aware of biohazards, which present a significant safety hazard to both staff as well as patients. It’s vital to have a waste disposal agency by your side to enable you to manage all waste. Healthwaste sensitization is also crucial.
Most sharps wastes can penetrate the human skin. It might carry different pathogens like HIV, hepatitis B virus, among other deadly viruses. It’s critical to prevent any medical practitioner from coming to contact with these illnesses. Here are vital tips to assist you in fine-tuning your approach to sharps management, thus reducing risks of needle-related injuries.
What’re sharps?
These are all medical equipment that can puncture human skin. Sharps are also able to puncture holes into the regular medical waste disposal bag. Some of the frequent sharps within the healthcare sector include the IV needles, syringes, broken glass, auto-injectors, lancets as well as insulin pens, among others.
You ought to know that these items must become regulated once they come into contact with the blood. Other things that you must watch out for include the ampules, slides, tubes as well as glass vials as they are equally dangerous when they break once they come into contact with blood. They ought to get treated as sharps and get disposed of with the right procedures.
Sharps collection
All disposable sharps ought to get placed in designated sharps containers as provided by medical waste companies. It will minimize the riks of these items dropping on floors or harming cleaners, among other people, within the health care facility.
Sharp collection containers get designed to manage all sharps with the utmost professionalism. They have an in-built mechanism for unhooking needles. There ought to be the least distance possible from your staff to cover when dropping the sharp waste into the containers.
What you must not do
When it comes to managing wastes, it is essential to follow the right procedures as stipulated by medical waste companies. It would be best if you don’t throw any sharps into the biohazard bags or trash bin. Never overfill the sharps disposal container. You ought to have a signed contract to enable the disposal company to regularly come to deal with managing sharps waste before it gets out of hand.
You should also never recap any needle. And it would help if you didn’t pass any sharp object to any other person aimlessly without adhering to the necessary precaution.
Sharps injury reduction
The ultimate goal of any health facility out to reduce sharps related injuries within their institutions. You can try to substitute any sharp tool with other equipment that can get the job done. In some instances, some medications can get administered orally rather than intravenously. In some scenarios, you can choose a blunt-edged needle rather than a sharp-edged needle.
Another plan that you can use when managing sharps waste is by searching for a reputable and reliable medical waste management service to handle all matters to do with medical waste products. It will ensure that the healthcare facility is safe for any personnel.
