Case Studies

The Challenge

Dr. Denton has busy practices located in a beautiful downtown area as well as a satellite office in a nearby suburb. She has been in practice for 20 years and is very familiar with the challenges of OSHA compliance and medical waste management. The office was under contract with a medical waste pickup service which charged a monthly fee whether the waste was picked up or not. The box was rarely full when picked up. Typically the assistant knew she didn’t need to put everything from the tray in the box, but did anyway – "it’s better than paying for disposal of a half-full box." Even though most of the time the box was empty when the driver came to pick it up, sometimes it would be full, and the assistant had to find storage while filling a new box.

The offices open at 7:00 am and the staff barely has time to breath between patients. They were never sure when the driver would come. "It never failed, as soon as I was in the middle of assisting with a procedure, the driver would show up. I had to either stop to close the box and sign the manifest, or he had to wait. He told me once that he could just close it up for me and have someone at the front desk sign the manifest, but I had been to an OSHA seminar, and learned that it’s unsafe to have someone else close up the box, and that the person signing the manifest must be someone who has had training and knows what is in the box."

One of the biggest complaints with the staff was that the pickup box had no lid. Not only did this potentially lead to unpleasant odors, but that big opening made it too easy for someone tearing down a tray to just throw everything into the box.

Dr. Denton tried looking at other pickup services, but they were just as expensive or couldn’t get to both offices – and especially not when they needed them. She once tried encapsulating their needles and tossing the container in the trash, but that didn’t take care of the soft waste, and she wasn’t really sure it was legal in her state. "One day the container busted open when the trash truck compacted the garbage. At the waste facility, the needles fell all over the floor. Needless to say, they put a stop to us doing that!"

Wastes in Dr. Denton’s offices were not being segregated properly. Items that shouldn’t go into the medical waste box were ending up there. Not only trash such as gloves and tray covers, but wastes containing mercury, lead, or other hazards were all tossed into the box. The staff was confused about the difference between solid, hazardous and biohazardous wastes.

Finally, in order to save money and due to the inaccessibility of the downtown office to the pickup service truck, an assistant carried the medical waste in her car from the downtown office to the satellite office for pickup. She hated putting the waste in her trunk. Eventually, they found out they would have to get a permit to transport in this manner.

The Solution

One day while reading the state dental association journal, Dr. Denton came across an article about Sharps and their innovative solution offerings. "What caught my eye, besides the cost savings, of course, was that there were no contracts required; and also that Sharps would repurpose my medical waste. We have been trying to go green every way we can, but never realized that medical waste was recyclable. I called and spoke to a specialist at Sharps who knew all about what my practice needed and exactly what I had been going through." I learned that our medical waste is not really waste at all. That’s because it wouldn’t just be autoclaved and put in a landfill like every other company does; it would be repurposed into PELLA-DRX. That’s really exciting to me and all of my staff."

With the Sharps Recovery System, no waste needs to be transported to the satellite office. Each office just orders what they need, when they need it. The systems are filled and mailed off right from the office, at the assistant’s convenience, not that of a pickup driver. “It’s great that I don’t have to stop patient care to package medical waste or sign a manifest anymore.”

Now the office only sends the boxes off when they are full. And because they can ship the box as soon as it is full, there is no risk in non-compliance. “I really like that we only pay for what we use,

Since the system includes a leak-proof container for the waste and sharps containers, items are not going directly into a cardboard box that could leak. "And it even has a lid! Since I’m the one who manages medical waste disposal, I can now package the waste and complete the manifest on my schedule, not in the middle of taking care of patients.

Sharps encourages customers to minimize the waste they dispose of as medical waste through source segregation. It’s called, RightClassification. There’s a great poster that comes with each Sharps 18 and 28-gallon systems that helps offices keep the trash, hazardous waste, and medical waste all in the right containers."

The Result

With the Sharps Recovery System, the process of medical waste management for Dr. Denton has gone from a costly, overly-complicated disposal service, to a complete all-in-one program that is as simple as ordering, filling and shipping. "I love that no contract is required, yet I can receive additional benefits by signing up for the SharpsAdvantage program if I choose to. We love the OSHA compliance CD and that Sharps has developed programs specific for the dental practice."

Not only do the Sharps systems help offices save money and comply with OSHA and state regulations, they help protect the planet. "We have saved about 50% over our previous pickup service, plus time saved in reduced handling time for my staff. We have also learned to keep hazardous materials out of our medical waste container. We love the way Sharps takes a systems approach to medical waste management. And we love that because of Sharps, we don’t dispose of medical waste anymore, we repurpose it!"