Trash/Medical Waste

[mikie]

So I'm just curious to how you all dispose of trash...

For example: if you're in the pt's house and open a NRB, do you just leave the plastic bag on the ground? (same for 4x4, anything that needs opening)?

What about on the ambulance? Just drop it? We have a SMALL red trash 'can' by the rear jump seat of our rig, but to small/far to put stuff in, unless it's a biohazard (ie blood on it).

Obviously SHARPS go into the designated container...

And we must dump all waste @ the hospital

Thanks!

 

[MedicDoug]

We never leave anything in the patient's house. If I have to I'll stuff the NRB/4x4 wrappers back in the kit until restock. Ditto gigantic hairy trauma scenes, somebody (us or last crew leaving) always cleans up the trash.
You must have one of those really big rescue/ambulances if the trash can is too far away.... Then again, you did say "rear jump seat"... does that mean there's more than one??? ;>)

 

[Jon]

If I'm in a residence, I'll try to find a trash can for "clean" gloves or trash (no blood or OPIM on them). If not handy, then I'll just shove it in a pocket or the jump bag. I try not to leave trash around on a scene... but if the patient is actively trying to die on us, trash (O2 wrappers, med boxes, etc) might get left behind, because I've got more important things to worry about.

 

[Ops Paramedic]

I am glad you mentioned this specific issue surrounding medical waste and the disposal thereoff and i hope that Daedralansa readss it. This thread should in theory be a good one. I might veer of your topic a bit...

If we wanted to be treated as professionals, we should act accordingly. Lets take for example an Manual resuscitators (Ambubag), or a laryngeoscope (Providing you don't use the disposable type), how clean is clean?? The question you have to ask in order to answer it is: "will i use this piece of equipment on myself?", and this for anything between your vehicle's front bumper and rear bumper.

Yes, we are well aware that our operating environment is by no means sterile, but this does not stop us from being being clean and trying to prevent any posibility of cross infections or contamination, from patient to patient, practitioner to patient, and patient to practioner. Have you ever been pricked by sharp left lying aroung in some dark corner of the bus?? Let me tell you that wil have "brown undies" for some time to come. Now try to track the source patient, impossible.

We live and work in and around other people too. We need to take tem into consideration, as we are putting their health at risk. Ambo wash bays should equipped with the correct system to get rid of medical waiste and soiled linnen, allow for the runoff to be collected in septic tanks and the correct procedures should be followed when cleaing the ambo. Your department should have regulation on this for eg. if you have have transorted a confirmed Meningitis patient. Otherwise check with infection control. Note that there is a difference between clean, sanitised, and sterile, and the objective is to get as close as posible to having all three. In some of our hospitals we always joke and say that the bugs we got goining around in some of these hospitals go to the CSSD (Sterilising Dept.) for a summer holiday, but in some places i am convinced it is the truth, not a joke...

Where and how do you wash your uniform after a shift or a nasty call if it is soiled (even if it is not, your uniform will contain pathogens which is not visable to the naked eye)?? At least you should be: washing them seperate from normal civies, on a hotter than normal cycle, and use a strong detergent. You can pass on a bug to your OWN family which you carry on your unifrom, specialy kids who have not got a fully developed immune system.

As for waiste on scenes, yes there are ocasions where time is of the essence, then arrange for else to collect any "normal" waiste. leaving medical on scene is a no go. Never mix medical and soiled waiste with normal wiast, as there might be people at the normal waiste disposale site who is looking through the rubbish for a meal. To be clean, cost only some "elbow grease", soap and water. At the end of the day, prevention is far better than cure and that we live amungst other people.

 

[EMTIA2-7747]

Medical Trash

Trash is trash...would you like it left at your house? no, you wouldn't. Treat everything and everyone as you would expect to be treated. If you are on a nasty scene and can't take the time to do it yourself, just ask someone else to do it for you, like a firemen or first responder to do so. Acting this way will work well towards making people look at you as a professional.

 

[LucidResq]

When I was 10 my dad had his first seizure. The paramedics came, took him the hospital, yada yada yada.. he was diagnosed with an idiopathic seizure disorder.

I'll never forget coming home a couple of days later and picking electrodes out of the carpet. It kind of rattled my head.

Just a story from the other side of the issue at hand.

 

[Grady_emt]

If its a mess in the house IE cardiac arrest, and we are taking FD riders, usually the Lt and FAO (Fire Apparatus Operator) will clean up a little for us if we leave a mess, but we try to pickup most of the trash before we leave. I usually stuff a large bio bag in the jump bag for this purpose.

As for the truck, we have a small trash (not bio) can in the footwell of the side door. Usually on a bad call, the whole step area becomes the trash can though as folks just toss things in that direction.

As for cleaning the unit, gross amounts of blood are cleaned with towels/cut-up sheets, and then we spray "Virex" and let it sit for a few minutes (usually i go to the ER Decon room and clean the stretcher during this time) and then spray again and wipe it all down.

Bio trash is disposed of accordingly at the ER, and regular trash is tossed in a trash can, but sometimes ill toss it all in a Bio-trash can.

 

[Jon]

To continue on my previous post.... If it is BIOHAZARD, then it needs to be disposed of properly. My vollie squad has a full-time duty supervisor who responds on all "bad" calls... one of the supervisor's jobs (per our SOP) is scene cleanup and/or marking of biohazard "stuff" on a scene.

If it is JUST trash, there is no reason it can't go in the nearest trash can... that includes most anything without gross blood or OPIM on it. We should avoid throwing "normal" trash in the red bag, because red-bag disposal costs are MUCH higher than regular trash... because it must be sterilized, etc.

My service has a separate Decon bay, but I don't believe the drain goes to a holding tank. We also have bins for both soiled linen and red-bag trash. Both get emptied at the hospital across the street from our base.