tary sewer. However you manage liquid waste, follow these 3
Golden Rules for suction canister disposal
Safeguard your staff.
Golden Rule No. 1 is more like a commandment: Thou shalt not
let staff manually open the liquid-filled canisters and pour the con-
tents down the hopper into the sanitary sewer system. The down-the-
drain method can pose a significant risk of splashing or aerosolization
of bloodborne pathogens for staff. Although it's hard to quantify the
cost of treating an employee for exposure to bloodborne path-ogens
like HIV and Hepatitis B and C, this practice can lead to OSHA cita-
tions regarding personal protective equipment practice, says Margaret
Wasserman, BSN, RN, CNOR, senior analyst for peer review at
Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago, Ill.
"It only takes one contaminated worker to offset any potential sav-
ings you might anticipate," says Ms. Wasserman.
Most facility managers readily agree that the mobile units are the
best way to protect staff members from infectious materials, facilitate
speedy turnovers between cases and keep fluid waste management
costs in check.
"Do they save us money?" asks Lee Ann Puckett, the materials
manager at the Evansville (Ind.) Surgery Center. "Probably not,
unless you look at the cost of what's involved when somebody gets
splashed with bloody fluid, and then having to go through all the
protocols with workers' comp."
Direct to drain can be economical, too. Some systems use reusable
canisters that are disinfected and reused, while others use an integrat-
ed canister system that is completely closed. Still others use dispos-
able canisters that are able to be placed in regular trash after a rinse
with an enzymatic cleaner.
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