PROPERLY DISPOSING OF YOUR SINGLE-USE SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS

 

PROPERLY DISPOSING OF YOUR SINGLE-USE SURGICAL INSTRUMENTS

As a medical professional, the appropriate disposal of single-use surgical instruments is an integral part of the job. In order to prevent contamination or and reduce health risks to the people in the waste management industry, every person in the medical field must handle and properly dispose of single-use instruments.
Waste management procedures for single-use instruments and tools tend to vary from country to country and even hospital to hospital, so you must consider it your responsibility to know what the guidelines are for your place of work. That being said, there are general rules and procedures that govern Australian institutions, as outlined below.

Categorising and Segregating Medical Waste

Once a single-use instrument such as disposable cholangiogram forceps has been used, it must be categorised according to the laws in your state and medical practice. These categories can vary across the board, so you should always keep apprised of the local laws for waste categorisation. In general, the identification of medical waste follows these broad categories.

Hazardous

Hazardous waste is classified as any medical waste that can potentially cause harm to others due to its infectious or radioactive properties. The category further denominates into sharps and non-sharps.
Sharps include disposable, permanently fixed needle syringes, scalpel blades, and other sharp items. If it has the potential to puncture skin, and has infectious properties, then it falls into this category. Everything else in this category can be classified as a non-sharp.

Controlled

Controlled waste is anything with potentially infectious body fluids stored in compact containers. These wastes such should not be able to express said fluids when compacted or squeezed. Disposable instruments will generally fall into this category, as they will be contaminated but not completely hazardous. Example items are emptied urine bags, non-sharp syringes and used PPE equipment.

General

Finally, general waste is comparable to household waste. This type of waste can be recycled or disposed of without the hospital being concerned about hazardous consequences.
One thing that is crucial to note is that you should always be wearing gloves and a mask when dealing with contaminated waste, and manual handling should be avoided if at all possible.

Storage, Transport and Disposal of Medical Waste

It is incredibly important to segregate and store your medical waste separately, as each category undergoes a different decontamination and disposal process. For example, hazardous sharps containers must be autoclaved, then ground into powder. As such, any non-sharps material left in the container will hinder this process significantly.
Each medical practice should have separate rooms for different waste categories. This keeps the waste physically segregated, and also makes it easier for practitioners to differentiate between them on waste disposal days. Within these rooms the waste needs to be clearly labelled with the numbered indicator of its type, as well as bagged in the correct colour. Once it is picked up by your waste disposal company, this will prevent any mishandling or mis-categorisation errors.

Work in tandem with a qualified waste contractor to develop the appropriate procedures for disposal at your hospital, and ensure that any infectious waste (which has “expressible liquid”) is taken through the proper channels

Recycling and Disposal

A lot of manufacturers leave the recycling and disposal of medical devices to operators such as hospitals. But this last phase of the device life cycle offers manufacturers new opportunities: from differentiation to cost savings to new business models.

Hospitals are also interested in new strategies due to economic pressures resulting from the ongoing pandemic and the increasing amounts of waste they have to dispose of.

 Recycling and disposal: a conflict of objectives in the case of medical devices

High-quality materials

Manufacturers are increasingly using high-quality materials, such as metals, plastics and combinations of the two, for example, in electronic components, because these high-quality materials make medical devices very safe and improve their performance.

For example, they have been proven to make devices very:

• Stable against mechanical and thermal loads
• Easy to clean, disinfect and sterilize
• Biocompatible
• Reproducible in terms of production

… should be re-used ...

It is precisely because these materials are of such high-quality that it would be better to re-use, recycle, or even refurbish them rather than sending them to landfill or incinerating them.

Reuse and refurbishment them helps:

1. Conserve natural resources
2. Minimize the environmental impact of the waste

… but not cause any risks

In the case of medical devices, however, there is a conflict of objectives:

• On the one hand, we want to protect the environment.
• On the other, it is important to protect people from infectious material and sharp objects.

The primacy of hygiene is intended to protect patients, hospital and clinic staff and everyone else who comes into contact with the material being disposed of. As a result, the handling of used, infectiously or non-infectiously contaminated medical devices in hospitals and clinics is subject to regulations that give priority to occupational public health protection and occupational health and safety

Sharps (injection cannulas, scalpels, curettes), for example, are considered hazardous waste and, therefore, have to be collected separately from other waste in special, type-tested containers. Provided that the containers remain securely closed, this waste can then be mixed with non-hazardous clinical waste, which can then be disposed of in waste-fed heating and power plants with no other special requirements.