Case Studies

The Challenge

Regulated medical waste at a home infusion company with branches in 46 states was managed in the traditional way. Nursing carried containers in cars and back to the facility for disposal. Patients were provided traditional sharps containers shipped to them along with heavy metal poles and infusion pumps. At the conclusion of therapy, a driver was sent out to pick up the sharps container, the IV pole and the pump. If the sharps container filled prior to end of therapy, an additional trip to the patient's home was required for a replacement.

Each branch was responsible for compliance with specific state regulations. The pharmacies disposed of items such as empty tubing and medication vials, syringes without needles attached and other items not considered medical waste in the red bag for a variety of reasons.

One branch said the trash bags often broke when transferring them, so they put everything in a large sharps container. Another branch was not sure what was required to be treated as medical waste, so they instructed the pharmacy, nurses and patients to place everything in the containers. Another placed both bulk and trace chemo into the medical waste container, while another put both those items in the hazardous waste container. Nursing, patient and pharmacy waste was all placed into the same container and sent out as branch waste. The home healthcare company was unaware that there was a different option for disposal. In addition, the logistical nightmare of trying to get IV poles and expensive pumps back to the branch was costing the company time and money. Steel poles were heavy, leading to additional shipping costs to the patient's home. Once the IV poles were brought back to the branch, they had to be sanitized and records had to be retained to comply with accreditation procedures.

Pumps were being lost generating additional expenses for replacements. Often drivers would schedule to pick up the sharps container, pump and IV pole, and the patient would not be home, requiring additional time and expense to schedule a return trip. In addition, once pumps came back to the facility, they had to be reshipped to the vendor for maintenance and cleaning.

The Solution

Sharps approached the home infusion company with not only competitive products, but with unique solutions to compliance questions and the logistical nightmare of retrieving containers, IV poles and pumps. Sharps all-in-one solutions allowed the company to provide nursing and patients with not only sharps containers, but with a way to dispose of the containers when full – right from the home, eliminating the cost and hassle of a driver trying to pick up the container when full. With regulations changing regarding home-generated sharps, mailback provides the perfect compliance option for both the branch and the patient.

"Waste minimization education provided by Sharps not only reduced costs of systems, but taught us to reduce waste by practicing source segregation. It may seem odd, but Sharps encourages us to reduce our medical waste – we never got that before.

Having a program that helps us to segregate our medical and hazardous wastes, and that can handle it all has also been a true benefit. Sharps has a system that allows us to not add additional inventory, but still direct the individual waste streams to the right type of processing.

In addition instead of picking up a pump and pole after treatment, the Sharps Pitch-It™ IV pole is simply placed in recycling by the patient and the pump is shipped directly to the facility for maintenance in the box in which it was received with no postage required. From the patients' perspective, the light-weight collapsible pole can be used anywhere in the home, or easily taken on a trip."

The Result

"With Sharps, our demands are met. Patient instructions and other resources such as pictorial waste minimization charts make it easy. They work with us through our current distributors. The relationship is the best. Direct contact with a manufacturer's rep and customer support provide a comfort level that our branches appreciate. Using an all-in-one system with one company instead of having to order containers and signing long-term contracts with pickup services makes the entire process so easy.

We have saved money through the waste minimization program, reducing logistic nightmares and shipping. We have increased compliance in the branches; complying without over classifying waste and spending unnecessarily on waste disposal. Sharps' willingness to help with the updating of policies and procedures as well as to interface with regulators has saved time and potential violations."

Over the last ten years, we have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars on medical waste disposal, container costs and regulatory consulting. On top of all this, only certain wastes require incineration and the rest is repurposed by Sharps' proprietary Waste Conversion Process™ into PELLA-DRX™, a new material used by other industries, eliminating disposal of waste in community landfills. We can save money, comply with regulations, make life easier for our employees and patients and help save the environment. Who would choose anything else?"