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Outpatient Surgery E-Weekly

Malpractice Verdicts Often Favor Physicians

Physicians come out on the winning end of 80% of malpractice claims that end in jury verdicts, according to researchers at Massachusetts General Hos...

Study: CT Colongraphy Effective in Finding Polyps

A CT-scan-based, laxative-free "virtual colonoscopy" may be as effective as standard colonoscopy in finding potentially cancerous polyps, according ...

Wrong-Site Prevention Video Shows the Right Way

Wrong-site, wrong-patient and wrong-procedure surgery must be prevented at all costs. The 3 steps of the Joint Commission's Universal Protocol make ...

Archive > July, 2011 Vol. XII, No. 7

Ideas That Work

Dispose of unused injectables

Safely Dispose of Unused Injectables
What's the best way to discard of partial injectable doses left in the syringe so that they're non-recoverable and can't be abused? Here's a simple solution to this challenge, which will become even more in focus when propofol becomes a controlled drug. All you'll need are a couple of items you probably already have on hand at your facility: an old 1-gallon plastic jug and some fluid control solidifier. Here at our endoscopy center, we reuse the jugs that our endoscope-cleaning soap comes in. We print propofol waste only on a plain piece of paper and tape it to the jug's side. We then put a small amount of solidifier into the jug (we use 2oz. of solidifier for every 1,000ml). When you place the wasted propofol into the container, it solidifies at once. When the jug is about three-fourths full, cap it and place it in a biohazardous waste container (as opposed to discarding syringes in a sharps container). This practice will insulate your facility from an unguarded episode or abuse that is traceable back to you.

Tom Haggerty
Endoscopy Technician
Endoscopy Center of Connecticut
Guilford, Conn.

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