Clinical Waste Audit

1
Clinical Waste Audit

• Once upon a time the common practice in our
  Intensive Care Unit was to have two types of
  waste receptacles by each bed One for general
  (mostly paper) waste and one for clinical or
  contaminated waste. (Cytotoxic radioactive
  waste are rare occurrences in our unit and are
  dealt with according to their respective
  protocols)
• A random audit revealed startling evidence
  careless choices costing the unit BIG ! Paper
  waste, IV bags still filled with fluid, IV lines
  burettes, full urine bags, plastic suction
  oxygen tubing, empty syringes, wrappers for
  various consumables were just some of the items
  disposed of in the clinical waste bags.
• To encourage staff to consider what was thrown
  out into which receptacle a change in practice
  was trialled the larger normal sized (101 x
  76cm) Yellow contaminated waste bag was removed
  from all 12 rooms. A smaller, kitchen tidy size
  (55 x 45cm) was to be used as deemed necessary
  ie if the RN was to attended a dressing, a small
  yellow bag would be collected as part of the
  preparation.
• Initial opposition was overcome and the changes
  have been very well accepted
• With the introduction of Waste Management
  policies recycling of office whites was
  introduced (blue bins) as was recycling of
  cardboard/plastic bottles/aluminum cans/newspaper
  (green bins). Recycled waste cost nothing to
  remove
• As the fees for waste disposal has increased in
  recent years the cost saving to the unit remains
  substantial.
• The following poster was developed for feedback
  and reminder that we all can contribute in the
  smallest way by disposing of general waste
  correctly

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Clinical Waste Audit
AUTHORED BY Deb Poynting CNC Intensive Care
Gosford ICU, NSCCH
Ever wondered about THOSE yellow clinical waste
bags and how much money we have saved?
Audit Result of one bag of Clinical Waste It
contained 5.2 kg of mixed waste charged at
0.89/kg4.62
CLINICAL WASTE
3.8 kg
1.4 kg
Results
3.8kg of non-clinical waste
1.4kg of clinical waste
Instead of 0.72 the non-clinical waste was
removed at a cost of 3.38 This averages at
2.66 per bag extra ICU is paying for removal of
non-clinical waste. Each room has a bag change
once per shift. For 10 rooms the extra cost is
approximately 80/day Over a 12 month period
the cost to remove non-clinical waste in clinical
waste bags is 29105 Following this audit the
large yellow bags were removed from each room.
Smaller bags are obtained from the store room
when required
NON-CLINICAL WASTE
A typical yellow bag was collected from one of
the rooms in ICU and separated into clinical and
non-clinical waste.
Waste is removed from ward areas 2-3 times
daily. It is weighed and disposed of
accordingly. The cost of removal and disposal is
charged per kilogram of waste. Non-Clinical
0.19/kg Clinical 0 .89/kg
By simply removing the large clinical waste bags
from the rooms and using the smaller yellow bags
as needed we have saved ourselves ( the
environment) nearly 29105 / year
RECYCLE GOODS COST NOTHING TO REMOVE