es at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo, Ohio. Two-thirds of
the 188 facility leaders who responded to our recent survey about
managing fluid waste agree that closed, high-capacity mobile units are
best for protecting staff from exposure to infectious material, speed-
ing room turnovers between messy cases and keeping the lid on your
fluid waste management budget.
The method of choice
Solidifying and disposing of fluid waste remained a manual process at
Ms. Brunswick's hospital until she had the opportunity to add mobile
units to each of her 22 ORs in exchange for the per-case cost of
replaceable manifolds (approximately $15), which prevent cross-conta-
mination by stopping the backflow of fluid already captured in the
machine. She also had to invest a small amount of capital into plumb-
ing and construction to add a docking station for the portable units to
the hospital's utility room.
To Ms. Brunswick, the investments have been worth every penny.
However, her staff took a while to share in the enthusiasm. "They
were hesitant to move away from solidifying waste manually," says
Ms. Brunswick. "But if I did away with the portable units now, I'd
have a mutiny on my hands."
The advantages that swayed her staff are numerous, says Ms.
Brunswick:
• eliminating their exposure to infectious waste;
• the high-capacity mobile units never run out of space, even during
procedures when fluid flows freely; and
• clean-up at the end of cases is a snap.
"You roll the unit to the docking station, plug it in and pick up an
empty unit for the return trip to the OR," says Ms. Brunswick. "It's a
simple process."
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