The smart choice for hospitals: sharps disposal done right with Celitron's ISS
29-02-2024
In hospitals, sharps disposal is one of the most important challenges. While the term “sharps” mainly refers to medical hypodermic needles, any medical waste that can cut or puncture human skin can be classified as such. They represent a huge part of the waste generated by the healthcare industry each year and are particularly hazardous because of their ability to easily spread infections with a single cut or prick.
This is also why you can expect huge fines if your hospital doesn’t have a sharps disposal solution.
In Celitron’s next article, you will learn more about how you can easily meet regulatory standards and make your working environment safer for patients and staff – all in a cost-effective way with Celitron’s ISS!
Hospitals’ sharps disposal solution: onsite vs. offsite
As we’ve mentioned in the introduction of our article, hospitals need to take sharps disposal very seriously. Since hypodermic needles come into contact with blood, they can easily spread infections from one patient to another, or even to medical staff if they aren’t extra careful when handling sharps waste.
Even with more waste treatment technologies like autoclaving, sharps aren’t like surgical tools. They cannot be reused for the treatment of other patients once they’ve been used, which is why they need to be destroyed either via high-temperature incineration or sterilized AND shredded.
A) Hospitals handling sharps disposal offsite
Traditionally, hospitals handle sharps disposal with offsite methods, meaning they collect and segregate the remains of hypodermic needles, and then store them in a separate area in special sharps containers marked with the universally recognized biohazard symbol. This is a particularly important step since sharps can easily cut through traditional garbage bags and thus injure and infect medical staff.
This approach doesn’t come without risks, since until the waste is transported away and taken to an offsite incinerator or other medical waste treatment plant, it will remain infectious, and staff will be required to be extra careful whenever handling it.
B) Hospitals handling sharps disposal onsite
The steps of hospitals handling sharps disposal onsite remain largely the same, but there is one notable difference. You will be able to sterilize your waste onsite and avoid the traditional risks associated with storing and transporting hazardous waste such as hypodermic needles. Not to mention you can also save up on transportation costs since waste removal services won’t have to deal with waste that is classified as hazardous.
While there are onsite incinerators available, they can be a much more costly option for most hospitals for their sharps disposal needs. Compared to autoclaves incinerators are also regarded as being less environmentally friendly with the risk of harmful emissions being released into the atmosphere. While flue gas treatment can alleviate this issue, it comes at the cost of being a very expensive onsite solution, both in terms of capital and operational costs.
This makes it a much less realistic solution for most medical facilities. Incinerators also require much more space to be installed at the site of hospitals which further complicates this process.
Celitron’s ISS: how does it work?
Celitron's ISS (short for Integrated Sterilizer and Shredder) is a high-tech onsite sharps disposal solution for hospitals and smaller medical facilities as well. It combines the benefits of high-temperature and high-pressure steam sterilization with powerful medical waste shredding to produce a method that is just as effective in treating the remains of hypodermic needles as incineration. This is because shredded waste makes it much easier for the steam to reach every single part of the load inside.
Any sharps waste that is loaded inside Celitron’s ISS will come out sterile, completely drained of liquid components, free of foul odors, and greatly reduced in size. This dry waste will be about 80% smaller than the initial load.
Apart from sharps waste, Celitron’s disposal machine can treat:
- Syringes
- Textiles
- Glass
- Plastics
- Lab cultures and specimens
- Discarded diagnostic samples containing blood and body fluids
- Dialysis waste
- Certain organic materials
Sharps disposal in hospitals: Celitron’s ISS comes with many benefits
1) Fully automated operation
Celitron’s ISS makes sharps disposal in hospitals much easier with a completely automated steam sterilization and shredding process. This not only alleviates the workload of medical staff with a user-friendly operation but also helps in achieving uniform results every time, with preset and customizable settings to suit the waste treatment needs of your facility.
2) Easier sharps waste storage and transportation
As mentioned before, the sharps waste that comes out of the ISS will be completely sterile and greatly reduced in size. This means it can be treated like regular municipal waste and will take up much less storage space. Furthermore, you can reduce your operational costs since you won’t need to request waste transporting services as frequently as before.
3) Sharps disposal not just for hospitals
We have different models available with different capacity chambers to suit the needs of facilities of all sizes and make the installation of Celitron’s ISS as easy as possible. This also means that smaller clinics can choose a solution that suits their budget. Since they don’t generate as much waste as bigger hospitals and have less available space, they can choose the appropriate model that accommodates their specific needs. The ISS is available in 25-, 150-, and 560-liter capacity.
4) Sustainable AND cost-effective solution for sharps disposal in hospitals
Celitron’s ISS not only decreases transportation costs by reducing the volume of sharps waste. It also helps in lowering the maintenance and operational costs of your hospital thanks to the advanced energy and water-saving systems present in our sharps disposal solution. It also comes with no risk of harmful emissions, unlike incinerators.
5) Extra safety features
Shredded sharps waste already makes the disposal process safer in hospitals, since it prevents the spread of infections and any potential punctures or cuts. Celitron’s ISS also comes with extra safety features that help you avoid accidents related to being near high-temperature and high-pressure steam – until the temperature and pressure inside the ISS don’t return to normal, you won’t be able to open its door.
Sharps disposal in hospitals with Celitron’s ISS makes handling medical needle waste much easier and safer. It also helps you meet the environmental regulations set by the WHO and the EU, WITHOUT being unaffordable – with low operational costs, Celitron aims to make this green solution available to hospitals all around the world. It is already present in over 80 countries!
If you have any more questions about the Integrated Sterilizer and Shredder or are interested in a free price quote, do not hesitate to CONTACT US!