Maintaining a safe, efficient environment of care is not easy in a children's hospital–where patients tend to be especially curious about their surroundings. To safeguard healthcare’s smallest patrons, children’s hospitals implement stringent safety protocols that cover a wide range of risks. A key risk area pertains to the disposal of sharp instruments used for treatment, such as needles, syringes, and scalpels. When not handled and disposed of properly, contaminated sharps can increase the chances of needlestick injuries that can harm patients and care teams. To help ensure patient rooms and other areas where sharps are used are safe from needlestick risks for staff and patients, children’s hospitals must have a comprehensive sharps management program in place.
Selecting the Right Waste Management Partner Requires Careful Review
According to seven top children’s hospitals, there are some key considerations to keep in mind when choosing a sharps waste management partner:
- Look for OSHA-compliant solutions that are easily recognizable, user-friendly, and accommodate the size and types of sharps used in the facility.
- Prevent access once a sharp has been thrown away and show capacity at-a-glance.
- Choose containers that are recyclable and contribute to lessening your overall carbon footprint.
- Select a partner that offers a complete sharps management service, to avoid having staff spend time monitoring and maintaining sharps containers.
Why Children’s Hospitals Partner With Stericycle
In addition to bringing more than 30 years of waste management experience to the table, we also prioritize listening to our customers and providing innovative solutions that address their unique waste management needs. For example, for each of the seven facilities, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of their existing sharps waste streams, as well as other regulated waste streams. We communicated with hospital team members to uncover ways to optimize waste solutions in a safe, responsible, and sustainable manner.
After selecting Stericycle as their sharps waste management partner, leaders at the seven hospitals offered several reasons why we stood out from the rest.
- Service: Our U.S. network of localized team members maintain a 98%1 on-time pickup rate.
- Expertise: Our knowledgeable teams serve as trusted advisors, helping customers navigate the intricacies of regulatory compliance. We also partner with hospital training staff to deliver orientation education and on-demand support.
- Value: Our proactive service and flat-fee pricing minimize costs associated with unnecessary container exchanges. Proprietary tracking software provides visibility to waste containers throughout their lifecycle.
- Sustainability Results: Our reusable sharps containers can be reused up to 600 times, reducing the number of sharps containers sent to landfills. Using our Carbon Footprint Estimator, the hospitals are able to visualize their impact on the environment. Collectively, they have reduced their carbon footprints by nearly 210,000 pounds per year.
To learn more about why seven of the top children’s hospitals partner with Stericycle for sharps management, download the full case study.
*Source: 1. Stericycle data, 2020.
