Sustainable Hospitals - Products and Resources for Category/Subcategory

Products and Resources for Category/Subcategory:
Safety Needles & Sharps Devices
Sharps Containers - Recycling Services

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Category/Subcategory
Safety Needles & Sharps Devices Sharps Containers - Recycling Services When establishing contracts for recycling sharps containers, be sure to consider the following points with your vendor. 1) How often boxes are picked up? - Contracts might specify weekly or biweekly pickup, for example. Make sure this is adequate and have a back up plan for servicing boxes that become full between pickups. 2) Are the recycler's sharps boxes opaque or see-thru? Facilities report that see-thru boxes help them recognize and respond proactively to full boxes between pickups. 3) How will the recycler service rooms that are in use when they come to pick up sharps containers? - Some facilities reported overflowing boxes because their recycler bypasses occupied rooms. With your vendor, plan for servicing occupied rooms. For example, consider options such as the recycler providing extra boxes and a list of inaccessible rooms to housekeeping. Michael Burke reports that North Memorial Medical Center, a 500 bed trauma center in Minnesota, implemented reusable sharps containers in 2004. This was a continuous improvement project, overseen by a team that included Infection Control, Risk Management, Nursing, ES and the recycling vendor’s staff. The program is set up so that the vendor works directly with the outpatient and inpatient staff members towards compliance. The service representative is available 7 days/week for needs such as extra containers, additional pulls of containers, or answering questions and is also present whenever there are surveyors (e.g. department of health or JCAHO). As a result of changing to reusable sharps containers, the hospital has both reduced cost (~$55,000 - $60,000 dollars annual savings) and eliminated disposable plastic containers going into the landfill or incinerator.
Product & Manufacturer	Comments
Bio Systems Sharps Container Management and Recycling Bio Systems 631-756-9433 http://www.biosystemsusa.com	Bio Systems manages sharps containers for healthcare facilities in the Northeast Biosystems tecnicians replace full sharps boxes in a facility and replace them with empty boxes. The contents are safely disposed of and empty containers are treated and reused
Product & Manufacturer	Comments
Daniels SharpSmart(TM) Sharps Collectors Daniels Sharpsmart Inc. 888-952-5580 www.danielsinternational.com	Reusable Sharps containers are serviced by the Daniels Corporation Contact Daniels for information about U.S. geographical locations they service
Product & Manufacturer	Comments
Hedgehog Sharps Collection Hedgehog 888-742-7779 Erik.S@Sharpsbox.com	Reusable Sharps containers are serviced by Hedgehog Service available in Chicago area
Product & Manufacturer	Comments
SteriLogic Sharps Collection SteriLogic Waste Systems, Inc. 888-756-3003 http://www.sterilogic.com	Reusable sharps containers are serviced by SteriLogic SteriLogic also sells the sharps collection equipment to hospitals Service available in Upstate NY, Maine and expanding into other areas of the Northeast
Product & Manufacturer	Comments
Sure-Way Systems Sharps Service Sure-Way Systems, Inc 800-822-3929 http://www.sure-way.net/	Reusable Sharps containers are serviced by Sure-Way Systems. Contact Sure-Way for information about U.S. geographical locations they service.

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Resource type
Web site
CDC Workbook for Designing, Implementing, and Evaluating a Sharps Injury Prevention Program Online guide for an effective sharps injury program. http://www.cdc.gov/sharpssafety/
Guidelines for the Management of Occupational Exposures to HIV and Recommendations for Postexposure Prophylaxis U.S. Public Health Service Guidelines, updated September 30, 2005 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr5409.pdf
NAPPSI List of Safety-Engineered Sharp Devices The National Alliance for the Primary Prevention of Sharps Injuries provides this list of sharp devices. http://www.nappsi.org/safety.shtml
NIOSH Safer Medical Device Implementaion in Healthy Care Facilities: Sharing Lessons Learned To assist health care facilities that are working through this process, NIOSH asked a small number of health care facilities to share their experiences on how they implemented safer medical devices in their settings. In this online resource, the facilities describe how each step was accomplished, and also discuss the barriers encountered and how they were resolved, and most importantly, lessons learned. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/bbp/safer/
OSHA Hospital e-tool: Needlesticks and Sharps Injuries This website includes a description of the different types of sharps safety features, including animation that shows how the safety feature operates http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/etools/hospital/hazards/sharps/sharps.html
PEPline (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis) Hotline PEPline, the National Clinicians' Post-Exposure Prophylaxis Hotline. This call-in center offers treating clinicians timely and current advice on managing occupational exposures (i.e., needlesticks, splashes, etc.) to HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne pathogens on a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week basis. The Center is a federally-funded resource that offers confidential expert advice for health care providers caring for persons with HIV/AIDS or managing occupational exposures. Services are free of charge. 1-888-448-4911 http://www.ucsf.edu/hivcntr
Premier Safety Institute The Premier Safety Institute website provides valuable online resources for healthcare-related information and tools that enhance patient, worker, and environmental safety. From the website you can also subscribe to Premier Safety Share, a free, monthly electronic newsletter. The Premier Safety Institute is part of Premier, Inc., a national alliance of hospitals and healthcare systems representing more than 1,500 facilities. http://www.premiersafetyinstitute.org

Note: Information has been provided by the named vendors. The Sustainable Hospitals Project does not endorse any products or take responsibility for the accuracy of the information or for product performance. Contact vendors directly to purchase a product or to obtain more information. This table is a work-in-progress, and feedback may be sent by email to shp@uml.edu or by phone to 978-934-3386.

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