Funeral homes and their mortuaries produce biohazardous materials and chemicals, such as embalming fluid, RCRA waste, and a variety of deceased people's bodies that require cautious post-mortem care. As a result, to safeguard your community, guests, the general public, and the environment, it is imperative that you dispose of such garbage securely and appropriately.
You can handle, store, and separate funeral home medical waste more effectively if you know the differences between the different forms of trash. By doing this, you may stop the spread of illnesses and ensure that your facility complies with state regulations for the disposal of medical waste. It can be intimidating to manage a funeral home when it comes to getting rid of the possibly contagious waste stream. But if you know the four key elements of safe waste management, you will be well on your way to managing a legally compliant funeral home that complies with safety standards. The following is a list of the most typical medical waste kinds that are discovered at funeral homes.
Sharp trash, like needles.
Items that go with the dead to the funeral home, such as gauze and robes.
Items like gauze, tubing, and disposable gloves are utilized in the preparation room.
Waste from Funeral Homes Needs to Be Correctly Divided
Funeral Home Medical Waste Protocol is a paper published by the National Funeral Directors Association. This includes a list of wastes that need to be disposed of in another way because they are not considered medical waste. They consist of, but are not restricted to:
Bulk Chemotherapy Waste
Radioactive Waste
Chemical Waste
Pharmaceutical Waste
Then there are various forms of waste, such as bulk or unused chemotherapy medication waste, and trace-contaminated chemotherapy waste. One instance of this would be vials of chemotherapy drugs that might be brought to a funeral home with the deceased. This kind of material can be disposed of in the biohazard waste containers that your medical waste provider picks up in many states. However, due to the manner utilized to properly dispose of such trash, pathological wastes, such as biological fluids or tissue, frequently need to be tagged or separated from your biohazard waste. To make sure that all potentially infectious material has been removed, this kind of trash frequently needs to be burned rather than autoclaved. Your medical waste carrier may be required to treat all waste as if it were pathological if they discover that pathological waste has been mixed with other biohazard waste. This could result in higher costs being passed on to the funeral home. The most crucial requirement is that biohazardous waste be packaged appropriately and labeled in leak-proof containers. Before being put in the red biohazard bag, any sharps waste, such as needles or syringes, needs to be enclosed in a stiff, puncture-proof container. OSHA Rules Applied to Funeral Homes
All workers who might come into contact with blood or other potentially infectious bodily fluids while on the job must get OSHA bloodborne pathogens training that complies with hazard communication standards. Writing an exposure control plan that details the funeral home's strategy for shielding staff members from infectious waste exposure is part of this.
Find out if your medical waste provider offers a compliance program by contacting them. Many give affordable internet solutions that nevertheless offer all the features you require to safeguard your company.
Wearing Personal Protective Equipment Is Essential
Personal protective equipment (PPE) is essential for preventing exposure in addition to OSHA training. PPE can comprise hand, body, and face protection, as well as eye and facial protection. Take a look at the nurse who treated an Ebola patient in Dallas before she became infected with the illness. "We don't know what occurred, but at some point, there was a protocol breach," stated Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He continued by saying that although it is possible to treat an Ebola patient properly, "even a single inadvertent slip can result in contamination." This will become even more crucial if more Ebola patients pass away and coroners and medical examiners have to handle their corpses.
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