Did you know that for every pound of municipal solid waste that is improperly classified as regulated medical waste, you are paying 10 times as much for disposal as you should?
Healthcare waste volumes continue to grow nationwide. Better access to healthcare is a must, but could also mean higher demand. And what does higher demand mean?
Higher prices for waste disposal services. Acute care facilities already spend a large portion of their waste disposal dollars on regulated medical waste. Waste costs per pound increase exponentially for regulated medical waste, pharmaceutical and hazardous waste. We know this is a problem, but what’s the solution?
Reducing cost through prevention, recycling and better management techniques are the first areas of opportunity. It is a best practice to recycle universal waste, or materials that would otherwise be considered hazardous waste per state and federal definitions. If not recycled, these materials are required to be managed as hazardous waste, which can be considerably more expensive.
Waste disposal fees also vary regionally depending on competition and proximity to disposal facilities. Waste fees per ton are less for large generators, which makes a system contract with aggregation more valuable. Bundling of services is also becoming popular to let one hauler manage all your waste streams.
Other important factors include:
- Proposed plan/scope of work for collecting and disposing;
- Suppliers’ previous experience;
- Quality of equipment/remote monitoring;
- Experience and training of personnel;
- Copies of all state/federal licenses and permits;
- Detailed emergency prevention and response plan;
- Whether transportation is performed by supplier or outsourced;
- Any pending litigation;
- Sanitizing methods; and
- Additional disposal facility fees.
The best case scenario is to develop new processes that will help you change behaviors within the facility, ultimately leading to more environmentally-friendly and cost-efficient ways of eliminating waste.
Want more information? Find out more about Premier’s environmental leadership program.
Donna Craft
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Hi Donna, I’m glad to have read your article. It is very informative. With your permission I’d like to share it with my clients and coworkers. We work in a similar field. My waste consulting focus has recently focused on nonprofit organizations, HIV clinics, and rural hospitals where the costs seem to be exaggerated. We have been recommending (where appropriate) lower cost haulers and/or the Sterilis on-site RMW destruction system. It’s new on the market and may be something you would want to look into as a cost savings for your clients. You can find out more about them at http://www.sterilismedical.com
We need to save money for the medical industry any way we can and this can do it.
Great points and great tips within this article. I really did enjoy the read.
Can I just add a comment about what you actually do with your waste. I see many labs and surgeries that simply throw there drugs into the bin once they are finished with them. That is not the way to do it. It can be put into a general bin for animals to find. Not good! They should be placed into a separate bin ready for the drugs, needles ect to be destroyed.
It’s interesting you mentioned reducing cost through recycling. I have been looking for different ways to recycle equipment recently. I think it is important to try and recycle hazardous waste. I’ll keep looking for any new information, thanks for the suggestions.
I like that you talked about how the fees for waste removal change depending on what are you are in. I have been thinking about working in the medical field and I wasn’t sure how they disposed of hazardous material. I can see how it would be important to be aware of how much the fees cost if you plan to have your own medical practice.