What Is Clinical Waste & Why Is Its Management Important?

Before understanding the importance of having clinical waste bags in healthcare institutions, it’s essential to know what clinical waste is and how it’s important. In that way, you can imagine the potential harm it causes and take precautions to counteract infections through the help of clinical waste services provided by specialists.

What is Clinical Waste?

Clinical waste refers to waste that is caused by medical, pharmaceutical, dental and other associated environments that may harm others health through infection. 

Clinical waste can include anything from needles and syringes to dressings contaminated with blood.

It can have three main categories of materials: 

• Particular healthcare waste that causes a chemical hazard.
• Medicines and medicinally-polluted waste that include pharmaceutically-active agents.
• Body fluids or blood.

Those who cause the creation of clinical waste are called clinical waste producers. Medical practices, hospitals, nursing homes, community healthcare service providers, and veterinary practices all fall under this category.

Here are some examples of clinical waste: 

• Used or contaminated sharps
• Human and animal tissues
• Infectious materials
• Laboratory waste
• Dressings

Why Is Management of Clinical Waste Important?

It is really important to manage clinical waste properly and in an organized way so that you can prevent harm to human health and the environment. Proper clinical waste disposal and management have many advantages, including the safety of the environment and cost-effectiveness. Most importantly, the right clinical waste disposal protects patients, staff, and visitors from dangerous exposure to polluted sharps, equipment, and medicine, providing their health and safety.

What is Clinical Waste and How to Manage It?

Clinical waste contains infectious agents, microorganisms, or toxins that result in disease or contamination. body fluids, etc. This waste can extend even to waste not coming from healthcare institutions, such as women’s sanitary products in restrooms, hotels, and other public houses. 

That’s why using proper clinical waste bins and having enough knowledge in the right management of clinical waste is essential for overall safety. 

Here are the most common ways of healthcare waste management:

1. Practice Segregation

The most essential way of proper clinical waste disposal and management is segregation. Instead of combining all waste in one place, it must be segregated before it goes for treatment and disposal. Using clinical waste bins and colour-coded clinical waste bags, you can put segregation in practice. 

Segregating waste guarantees that your waste streams are properly and safely disposed of. As clinical waste disposal is higher in cost than that of other waste streams, separating your waste streams can help you save money. With that in mind, you can consider a few of our favourites made just for this task:

• Clinical Waste Bags 52 x 65 cm Bio Hazard Heavy Duty 50 per Roll
• Clinical Waste Bags Bio Hazard Heavy Duty 10 per Roll

2. Provide Visuals

Put visual reminders on your healthcare institutions for proper waste management, providing details of which waste stream goes into which coloured waste containers. In that way, you can prevent cross-contamination of your waste. For instance, you can educate where to throw waste by showing the colour of clinical waste bags. 

3. Provide Employee Training

Always organize regular staff training, as many workers don’t know about proper clinical waste management. Especially, pay special attention to workers who join your team for the first time. Through proper training, you ensure that waste will be properly managed and there will be no excuses later on for poor handling. 

Those who manage hospital waste are most at danger of being exposed to potentially infectious waste. All employees in healthcare facilities should receive sufficient training so that they can follow clinical waste management requirements. 

They should be aware of risks, segregation tips, and how to protect their health. 

Here are a handful of essential tips for you to prevent the infection spread:

• Never overfill clinical waste bags and bins so that they don’t overflow or spill out, potentially spreading infection. Overfilled bags may also be overweight, posing a health and safety danger to individuals lifting them.

• Dispose of soft clinical waste in an automatic lidded unit or a foot-operated pedal pin so that you don’t touch the surface and prevent the spread of infections.  

4. Consider Clinical Waste Services

Through the help of specialists who provide clinical waste services, you ensure proper handling and management of clinical waste. These services can give you proper guidelines on waste management. And most importantly, they can, later on, handle proper treatment, transport and disposal of the waste. For instance, thermal treatment, which is one of the common ways of medical waste disposal, uses high temperatures to render the trash combustible and not harmful. Sharps waste and infectious waste are both treated with it. During this treatment, the waste material is burned down, while useful components are resistant to temperature conditions and survive the process without being harmed.All clinical waste should be kept in a lockable room or an exterior wheelie bin. Whenever you think of purchasing hygiene products and waste management bags, opt for Hyex to guide you to choose the best items.