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packs," says Ms. Myers. "I don't know which is worse: the cost of buying sheets and the cost of laundering them versus getting 1 item that
you use and then throw away. I'm personally torn. I am on the fence
because I'm torn between the environment and efficiency."
Lisa Waters, RN, chief operating officer at Columbia (S.C.) Eye
Surgery Center, agrees that turnover kits produce too much waste.
"My personal opinion: It's better to recycle. In a previous center, we
used disposable kits, but there was too much trash that accumulated
and was being sent to the landfill." Ms. Waters would be attracted to a
turnover kit that contained linen sheets that you'd launder. (Another
complaint about disposable sheets? Their plastic backing can cause
patients to slide in reverse Trendelenberg.) For now, her center makes
its own kits (see "Do-It-Yourself Turnover Kits" on page 60).
Some turnover kits are eco-friendly. At the Multi-Specialty
Surgery Center in Indianapolis, Ind., the turnover kits come with a
green bag for recyclables, says Kristy Verbish, CST, RN. At
Riverside (Calif.) County Regional Medical Center, where the
turnover kits are delivered with the case carts, Amy Siegfried,
BSN, says they use the bag that the kits comes in as a trash bag at
the computer console. OSM
E-mail doconnor@outpatientsurgery.net.
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