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P R A C T I C E S
Colette Klein, RN, the ASC's director, purchased a covered waste container for contaminated garbage. The hands-free receptacle is hard to
miss and easy to use — staff simply step on a foot lever to open the lid
and discard contaminated garbage. The ASC now pays considerably
less for waste disposal: $318 per month compared to $480, says Ms.
Klein.
You know those stapling devices that normally fill up large sharps
containers? A reprocessing company hauls them away at no charge
from Martin Health System in Stuart, Fla., and recycles them for companies that use the plastics for park benches, says Val Ruby, BSN, RN,
MBA, CNOR, the assistant vice president of perioperative services.
3. Fluid disposal. No-touch, direct-to-drain fluid disposal systems are
environmentally friendly. Besides eliminating red bag waste, they also
save you indirectly. One, they reduce the risk that staff will injure their
backs slipping on wet floors or carrying heavy canisters of fluid waste to
the hopper. Two, they help prevent infection, as staff won't get splashed
by infectious fluid waste while pouring it down a drain.
4. Save on anesthesia, too. Imagine having to change only the mask
and the filter between general anesthesia cases rather than throwing
out the mask and the entire anesthesia circuit. Now you can, when you
use a breathing filter that protects the anesthesia circuit from contamination by the patient, and the patient from contamination by the circuit
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O U T PAT I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E O N L I N E | D E C E M B E R 2012
