3. Contributors to improper health care waste management
Results from this section have been grouped according to the major role players who participate in the management of health care waste.
3.1. The health care waste disposal industry
“Because so much is wrong with the industry, it allows unscrupulous people to exploit the shortcuts and loopholes”, (Sunday Tribune, 2010, p. 15).
The Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism director general was quoted in a news story admitting that the industry is in crisis and that what is most alarming is that they do not know what is causing the problem. Issues within the health care waste disposal industry reported in news stories include what follows. Health care waste disposal companies do
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12).
On top of the shortage of health care disposal facilities, is the lack of finances and skills in the industry to obtain more incinerators or other forms of disposal.
“… the limited number of health care waste disposal facilities and the resultant high cost of treatment and disposal had contributed to the illegal dumping of medical waste on municipal landfills and open space”, (Daily News, 2012, p.
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Only one news story mentioned the issue of aesthetics describing a pile of illegally dumped health care waste as an eyesore. Smells of illegally dumped waste are described as unbearable. Smell was most often reported as an alert to illegally dumped health care waste, as well as what spurs resident action. Environmental conservation is a concern of improperly operating incinerators and the stockpiling of health care risk waste. Improperly operating incinerators are reported to result in air pollution; and the stockpiling of health care risk waste is reported as a concern of polluting groundwater systems through the leakage of waste material into the ground.
B) Solutions to problems related to health care waste
1. Proposed solutions
Proposed solutions in news stories included the need for government policy and regulation; the use of new technology; training of hospital staff and the creation of specific health care waste agencies; and the development of health care waste management strategy documents.
“Yet, we can only plead with all responsible people in our city to the right thing and respect the health of others. This call extends to all medical practitioners, medical institutions and their service providers always to act responsibly with dangerous waste”, (The Herald, 2004, p.
Phase 2: Decision and Engagement In the second phase, thought is required of inside limit and capacities of the hospital, neighbourhood responsibility for the issue, and probability of creating 'do-capable' arrangements. Phase 3: Environmental scan and identification of strategic issues This stage includes a point by point examination of the present circumstance. Firstly, suppliers (private, open and non-government hospitals), neighbourhood government, industry and other important hospitals to workshop the issue and main drivers, recognize a procedure or procedure to advance, characterize parts and obligations of organizations to advance critical thinking, and create more extensive correspondence technique.
Lastly, the proponents of the Medical Waste Tracking Act of 1988 used public persuasion and issue framing extensively. Proponents framed this bill as a major and urgent issue because it was disrupting families’ summers at the beach. Furthermore, 1988 was an election year, and Congress needed to get something passed fast, or else no Northeastern Congress member was going to be safe in his or her House seat. For this reason, the bill was framed as an emergency. However, the bill itself was innocuous so that no one could object to it.
It must incorporate innovative approaches to create a stronger organizational ethics culture change, quality improvement intervention, new policies, standards, tools, metrics, and on going in-house monitoring of sterilization areas the hospital can help safeguard from this type of issue from happening again. Additionally the hospital needs to take appropriate disciplinary action against all employees involved that were not performing their job’s properly, this includes not only the technicians but the head of sterile processing. Furthermore the staff must improve the training on sterilization methods, this includes the consequences of not following proper
The author of American Wasteland, Jonathan Bloom, uses many techniques to steer readers in his direction. Bloom talks about a big issue concerning American in 2010 and is still an issue today in 2016, six years after he wrote this book. As a result of broad research, the main issue today is expiration dates and how state regulations and laws promote food waste (Linnekin). As other books, articles, and documentaries explain this issue they use evidence, positive and negative connotations, and bias to connect with a general audience or supporters.
Because of Stone addressing issues for both the doctors and patients, having people more informed about healthcare overuse would be
The Joint Commission is involved in making sure the health care facilities are providing the patient and family members of patients the effective and safe care that the patient needs and deserves. There is a close relationship between the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) and the results of the Joint Commission survey. If the facility were following the NPSG’s then the facility would have more of likelihood that the organization will receive a good survey results from the Joint Commission. There are serious consequences for the health care organization if the organization does not meet the benchmarks set by the Joint Commission. Multiple tools out there will aid this author in determining if the organization that this author works in is
Introduction The Medical industry within the Veterans Health Administration is an infamous subject matter concerning healthcare around the world. Largely, the costs of healthcare and pharmaceuticals companies together compound expensive endeavors that effect many companies, challenge the minds of theoretical researchers, and influence numerous government rules and regulations. The social responsibility of the medical industry is important for the industry to up-hold because this is the industry that provides care for others. With this care come many other areas to make the care of health flow for the individuals who come in for care.
Health care professionals must also be trained on how to dispose of the medicines appropriately. For example sharps such as needles and cannulas must be deposited in the sharps bin and emptied on a regular basis to reduce the risk of needle stick injuries and infections being passed on. This act looks at how it can benefit both the service users and staff so that standards are set clearly and
Nelson, William A. Healthcare Executive Column. July/August 2005; Making Ethical Decisions: A Six-Step Process Should Guide Ethical Decision Making in Healthcare; Healthcare Management Ethics. July/August
Because of EMTALA patients will no longer be turned away for economical reasons. They will be attended to with medical screening and examinations no matter the condition. Patient dumping" became an issue when so many unstable people were turned away or transferred started to have more difficulties with their health condition because they were not attended to on the spot at the time. Many hospitals participated in this practice and it was only endangering the patient’s health and life. The purpose of health care is to meet the medical needs and the safety and well being of a
This information is used to appropriately implement prevention and treatment for patients. The second outcome integrates analysis of information gathered by healthcare personnel to identify trends and inconsistencies within the healthcare population. Through this the origin of problems can be ascertained, and preventive measures can be instituted. Subsequently prevention will decrease incidences and ultimately the cost to
As mentioned earlier, workflow, busy days, distractions, emergencies, visitors and lack of proper education and incentive are some of the many barriers that prevent complete compliance with any process. In order to determine the factors involved in non-compliance there will need to be a time of observation and data gathering to decipher why non-compliance exists. The reason this would time a lot of time would be due to the fact that the issue is not just caused by medical staff, but rather by everyone that enters the hospital or any patient room. This type of quality improvement project would take the right type of incentive to improve outcomes (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2016). For example, if this was just a quality improvement amongst health care providers MCH could offer a “Safety Incentive Bonus” that would be granted to staff if the hand hygiene compliance increase to 90% in one year across the entire institution.
In the film Escape Fire the Fight to Rescue American Healthcare, there were many insightful examples of why our Unites States healthcare revolves around paying more and getting less. The system is designed to treat diseases rather than preventing them and promoting wellness. In our healthcare industry, there are many different contributors that provide and make up our system. These intermediaries include suppliers, manufacturers, consumers, patients, providers, policy and regulations. All these members have a key role in the functionality of the health care industry; however, each role has its positives and negatives.
There are many stakeholders involved with health care administrations. Those stakeholders can be patients, health care physician, insurance providers, pharmaceutical manufactures, hospital organizations, community clinics and government. Each different stakeholder has their own individual vision of health care administration. This causes conflict due to the nature and differences in vision. which then can cause conflicts among each stakeholder involved.
Ethical Complexity of Distribute Justice and Rationing Medicine is a practice based on moral standards applied to clinical values and judgments, also known as medical ethics. Ethical values consists of beneficence, nonmaleficence, autonomy and justice. However, these ethical principles are affected when distributive justice and rationing of health care resources are implemented “…in a world in which need is boundless but resources are not…” (Scheunemann & White, 2011, p. 1630). The historic Hippocratic Oath described the four main principles of medical practice and established a moral conduct for clinicians. Beneficence demands that health care providers develop and maintain skills and knowledge, consider individual circumstances of all patients, and strive for the patient’s benefit.