Tuesday, July 20, 1999
Corrections made in way trash hauled
Medical waste mishandled
BY JANET C. WETZEL
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MIDDLETOWN — Environmental and health officials spent much of Monday at Middletown Regional Hospital investigating how bio-medical infectious waste, including bloody bandages, recently got mixed with regular trash.
Officials were also there to determine whether proper safeguards are in place to avoid future problems.
“We've determined they did a very good job of correcting the situation,” said Duane Stansbury, chief sanitarian, Middletown Health Department. “They are still working on it but have effectively stopped all infectious waste from leaving the building unless it's marked and handled as infectious waste.”
Bio-hazardous or infectious waste from the hospital, including blood byproducts such as soaked gauze, was discovered July 1 by an employee at Browning Ferris Industries of Ohio's (BFI) transfer station in Avondale, officials said.
More infectious waste from the hospital was discovered there July 8 and may have already been in the waste stream, said Lynne Barst, Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA), environmental public information officer.
Federal law requires that infectious waste be kept separate. It is usually put in red, specially marked bio-hazard bags, and must be disposed of separately by an infectious waste facility, officials said.
The hospital was notified immediately of the violation and ordered to correct the problem, Mr. Stansbury said.
“There is no penalty involved with the notice,” Mr. Stansbury said.
When the first batch was discovered, the OEPA, the hospital and the health depart ment were notified. Since the bio-hazardous waste was already mixed with regular garbage, the hospital had an infectious waste treatment facility treat and dispose of all the trash as infectious.
“The hospital came immediately and took care of the situation, and verbally made a commitment to go back and try to find out why this happened and make sure all personnel was informed about the situation,” Ms. Barst said. “The hospital is doing its best to find out how this happened and to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
The hospital has made various changes to avoid future problems, said Larry James, hospital vice president and chief marketing officer.
He said the regular trash is being put in clear bags, each must be visually checked for bio-hazardous waste before it leaves the hospital floor, and there are frequent spot checks at the loading dock before it goes to a waste hauler.
Also, in areas of high-volume infectious waste, such as operating rooms and birthing areas, all waste will be treated as infectious, at least for now. A tracking system has been put in place so each trash bag can be traced to its point of origin, Mr. Stansbury said.
The hospital already requires new employees to be oriented on handling infectious waste, and there is annual re-education, Mr. James said.
“So that's one of the things that perplexes us,” Mr. James said. “We've worked long and hard on these procedures and policies and felt very comfortable with them.”
As for the risks of such an incident, Ms. Barst said if infectious waste reaches the landfill, anyone coming into contact is in danger of picking up infections or bacteria.
“But once this was noticed, it was immediately cleaned up and transferred to an infectious waste facility, so that should have eliminated any risk,” she said.
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