Do not lose sight of what happens to sharps waste once it leaves your facility. You are responsible for your sharps waste from “cradle to grave”. Valley Medical Waste can provide you peace of mind that your sharps waste is being properly managed.
Valley Medical Waste offers sharps disposal and documentation to maintain compliance with applicable federal and state, OSHA and DOT regulations.
What Items Classify as Sharps?
Sharps are objects or devices that have been used in patient care or in medical, research or industrial laboratories. Sharps can be glass, metal or plastic with rigid corners, sharp edges or protruding pieces that can slice, scrape or pierce the skin. Sharps may include:
- Acupuncture needles
- Blood vials
- Broken glass or capillary tubes
- Culture dishes and slides
- Exposed ends of dental wires
- Lancets
- Mortuary prep room waste
- Needles (hypodermic and tubing)
- Pipettes
- Root canal files
- Scalpel blades
- Slides and coverslips
- Suture needles
- Syringes with or without needles
- Tattoo needles
- Trauma scene waste that can cut, slice or pierce
- Tubing with attached needles
- In a locked container marked “Biohazardous Medical Waste” with the universal biohazard symbol
- Stored for no more than 90 days when full or when no longer in use
Properly Document Storage and Disposal Information
Tracking documents must be kept on site for a minimum of one year from disposal date and regularly updated.
Typically, documented information includes (but is not limited to):
- The name of the person in charge of sharps containers and facility name and address
- Dates of use (i.e., storage start-of-use and date container filled) and of disposal/pick-up
- An ID system, if there are multiple containers in use at one facility