medical waste management apr-jun 2012
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Apr-Jun 2012 issue of Medical Waste ManagementTRANSCRIPT
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VOL. VIII NO. 2 APR-JUN 2012
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Innovative American & Canadian Healthcare Providers Embrace Alternative/Renewable Fuels
heating and electricity costs, translating into more money that can be invested in healthcare services and reduced rates for individuals. It also promotes local economic growth.
“The goal is to become energy independent by 2014. We started with energy conservation – 10 percent improvement in the first six months, 20 percent 12 months later and we’ve been holding steady at 25 percent,” says Corey Zarecki, Gundersen’s Director of Envision - Engineering and Operations. “It’s the right thing to do. Energy conservation initiatives are very quick to implement, there are good paybacks and by reducing our energy consumption, it
BY IRWIN RAPOPORT
Harvesting waste to generate electricity
and heat is viable as demonstrated by
North American hospitals;
experts note that opportunities
are waiting to be exploited.
Should North America decide to recycle waste to generate energy, much could be done via biogas and biofuel production to provide power to many public institutions
and businesses and by taking such actions, extend the lifespan of landfills and create a paradigm shift in the environmental ethics of people, businesses and institutions.
Based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, Gundersen Health System, which operates its main hospital in La Crosse and has regional hospitals and nearly 50 clinics in southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa and western Wisconsin, has embraced energy conservation and alternative energy since 2008. This has resulted in reduced
Consulting FirmsBadrick Consulting – pg 13
Golder Associates – pg 4
Hazardous Waste disposal &inFeCtion ComplianCe serviCes
Clean Harbors - pg 6
inFeCtious & non-inFeCtiousWaste Containers & linen Carts
Bomac Carts – pg 10Rehrig Healthcare Systems - pg 2
TQ Industries – pg 5
inFeCtious Wastesterilizing systems
Bondtech Corporation – pg 13The Mark-Costello Co – pg 10
OnSite Sterilization - pg 16ReGen – pg 8
STI Biosafe – pg 7
liquid disposal systemsBemis Health Care - pg 12
sHreddersShred-Tech – pg 5
Vecoplan LLC - pg 11
X-ray Film reCoveryCommodity Resource &
Environmental, Inc. – pg 9Ag Medical Systems - pg 15
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APR -JUN 2012 Medical Waste ManageMent 3
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Publisher / EditorRick Downing
Contributing
Editors / WritersP. J. Heller
Irwin Rapoport
Production & LayoutBarb Fontanelle
Christine Pavelka
Advertising SalesRick Downing
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brings down the amount of renewable energy that we need to generate.”
The non-profit organization is moving fo r w a r d v i a i t s E nv i s i o n ® environmental stewardship and energy program. Gundersen uses wind power via two five-megawatt facilities – one in Lewiston, Minnesota (operational) and another in Cashton, Wisconsin (soon to be commissioned). The power generated from these facilities and others is sold to the local utility company, offsetting power used at Gundersen’s facilities.
Solar panels are employed at a child care facility at the hospital to produce 85 percent of its hot water heating.
The first large biogas project was undertaken in 2009 with the City Brewery in La Crosse, one mile from the main hospital. The brewery had a digester and flared the gas it created.
“We installed a cleaning system that allows us to capture and clean the gas and send it to a generator to produce electricity,” says Zarecki. “It is connected to the grid and we also capture the heat from the engine and exhaust and recycle that back to the digester, making that more efficient and thus create more methane. Last year we generated almost 500,000 kilowatt hours.”
A landfill gas project close to Gundersen’s Onalaska Campus (10 miles north of La Crosse) is also taking advantage of gas that was being flared.
“La Crosse County installed a gas pipeline (1.5 miles long) to our campus and the gas is fed into a generator that produces electricity and is connected to the grid,” says Zarecki. “The waste heat and exhaust is captured and sent to two of our large buildings. We’re essentially off-setting all of our electricity, heat, and domestic hot water requirements. The campus is now energy independent.”
A biomass boiler will be installed at the main hospital in late 2012.
“We also hope to create a little higher pressure steam and have a back pressure steam turbine to generate electricity,” says Zarecki, who adds that a geothermal system is being installed on its new hospital under construction.
Gundersen is also working with three dairy farmers to pipe manure into a digester to produce biogas, similar to a waste treatment plant that will not only generate electricity, but also compost bedding and/or potting soil and at the same time, remove phosphates that could pollute lakes and rivers, which state departments of the environment and natural resources appreciate. These departments also appreciate Gundersen’s overall goals in terms of recycling
and environmental protection initiatives.“If we can get this one to work as anticipated
or better, then we’ll be able to do it with more farmers and those with smaller
herds,” says Zarecki.He adds that as more
plans are brought forward, i t is easier to bring government and industry stakeholders together to
realize projects.“We call our program
two-s ided green,” says Zarecki . “Green for the
environment and green for the economy. For the long-term, the projects
have to be sustainable and balanced. We’re constantly learning from our successes and mistakes. Part of our mission is to help improve the health of the community. Our energy bill when we started this program was $6 million and if we can eliminate it, then it can be passed on to our patients and the community.”
The Valley Regional Hospital, part of Nova Scotia’s Annapolis Valley Regional Health Authority (AVRHA), has been using biomass to create steam and provide heat and hot water and run the laundry service since the facility was built in 1992. Currently woodchips cover two-thirds of its energy needs, with the remainder provided by heating oil.
One ton of woodchips costs about $50 and is the equivalent of nearly 400 liters of oil, which is worth about $370 as of press time.
“We are using approximately 750,000 liters of oil a year,” says Angus Smith, the AVRHA’s Director of Engineering and Maintenance. “[Using woodchips] is a considerable savings for us.”
The woodchips, which come from the Canadian province’s logging operations, are purchased via tenders. While the quality of the chips has partially declined due to changes in the logging industry, the supply remains viable and many industrial plants use them to supply their energy needs.
“Our plan is to optimize the woodchip boiler,” says Smith. “We’re in the process of looking at how we can upgrade the boiler, but the technology is largely the same as it was in 1992.”
Smith notes that as the price of oil remains in the $100 plus per-barrel range, the generated savings allow for more funds to be spent on medical services.
But he adds that burning woodchips is not as clean as burning oil and that a cyclone filter removes the fly ash and other particles. The chips are placed in a bin and automatically fed into the boiler.
Also in Nova Scotia, the Northside General
Innovative American & Canadian Healthcare Providers Embrace Alternative/Renewable Fuels
We call ourprogram two-sided green.
Green for the environment and green for the economy.
medical waste management
Medical Waste ManageMent APR -JUN 20124
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Larry DeWitt can certainly be excused for not being the biggest fan of digital technology. After all, Commodity Resource and Environmental (CRE), the business he founded 32 years ago and which has grown into one of the world’s leading silver recovery
companies, has watched as digital technology has replaced silver-based films in a variety of applications.
In graphic arts and publishing, for example, the volume of silver-based film handled by DeWitt’s company has fallen from as much as 30 percent to about 5 percent today as the industry has jettisoned film and transitioned to computer-to-plate technology.
Even more dramatic has been the move away from camera film — witness the situation with Eastman Kodak Company which has filed for bankruptcy protection — to digital cameras.
“Not many people are shooting film in their cameras any more,” DeWitt notes. “I was the longest holdout on that just because of my business . . . but I’ve had a digital camera now for about eight or nine years.”
DeWitt sees much the same thing ultimately happening to X-ray film, even though the volume of that material processed by CRE has steadily
BY P.J. HELLER
increased over the last five years. The company currently processes some 2.5 million pounds of X-ray films monthly. Of that amount, about 45 percent is film jackets and associated paperwork with the balance being film for silver recovery. The company also accepts shredded film.
The biggest increase in volume, which he describes as a “major spike,” came in 2011, with the financial collapse of Gemark Corp., a major precious-metal refining company in New York. Gemark and seven affiliated companies has since filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
“Even though we had steadily grown over the last four or five years at a nice rate, this was a big spike,” DeWitt says of the Gemark material. “We weren’t prepared for it.
“We always have contingency plans, a lot of which are based on a crisis in wrong direction,” he adds. “This was a crisis in the right direction.”
To handle the increased volume, CRE added three new buildings and increased capacity and ramped up staffing at its plant in Mojave, about 90 minutes from the company’s headquarters in Burbank, Calif.
“For awhile we had a horrendous backlog, but once we got the buildings up and the staff trained, we were able to increase production enough to handle not only what was coming in on a regular basis, but to reduce the inventory backlog we accumulated because of the spike in the business,” DeWitt says.
By the fall of 2011, the workload stabilized. While hospitals, medical facilities and document management
companies still have decades of stored X-ray films that eventually will need to be destroyed, DeWitt sees a diminishing market as digital continues to make inroads.
“Five years ago, if you were interviewing me, I would have said it’s a maturing business,” says DeWitt, who uses the same description to describe the situation today.
Twenty years ago, he gave the market another 10 years before predicting its demise. Today, he makes the same prediction.
As the market changes, with X-ray film eventually going the way of graphic arts and photo films, he expects CRE will change with it.
“Hopefully we’re smart enough to plan beyond that,” he says. “We will still be in business but it won’t be in the business we are in now. We’re not in the business as it existed 20 years ago or even 10 years ago. But 10 years from now, we won’t be in the business as it exists today.”
“You can’t sit still,” he adds. “You have to keep moving forward. You have to have plans . . .”
DeWitt has already made some moves to remain viable in the future. Chief among them was to begin offering document destruction services at CRE for film jackets and radiology reports.
“Our primary goal was to get the film with the silver on it, but the marketing part was having the in-house capability to destroy the records that accompany the film,” DeWitt explains. “It gave people more reason to use us as their silver refiner. It has been a very big plus for us.”
Along with the effort, CRE became the first silver refiner in the U.S. to be NAID certified. NAID (National Association for Information Destruction) is the international trade association for companies providing information destruction services. CRE also became heavily involved with PRISM (Professional Records & Information Services Management), the trade association for the commercial information management industry.
“The X-ray films themselves are not NAID certifiable, but most of the X-ray films we get, whether from a hospital or a records storage company, come in jackets with the X-rays inside the jacket along with all the radiology reports,” he says. “So we started emphasizing our HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance, then moved forward with getting certified by NAID.”
The company also constructed another building and purchased a shredder and an auto-tie baler.
Planning for the Future – CRE’s X-Ray Vision
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APR -JUN 2012 Medical Waste ManageMent 5
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“We started promoting the fact that not only were we NAID certified but we were the only refiner destroying records in-house, not sending them out or overseas,” DeWitt says.
After shredding the documents, the paper is sold to mills in the U.S. DeWitt adds that nothing that is sent to CRE ends up in a landfill.
After the silver is removed from X-ray films, the remaining PET plastic is sent to recyclers. And after silver is removed from photo processing chemicals, the resulting industrial waste is sent to evaporation ponds at a waste facility.
CRE in the last year also purchased chopping equipment to handle micromedia, such as microfilm and microfiche. It reduces the material to NAID-mandated chop size of one-eighth of an inch. It also installed a grinder for hard drive destruction.
Those purchases were all part of phase one of a multi-phase plan for document destruction. The other phases had to be put on hold when business spiked in 2011 due to the Gemark situation.
DeWitt notes other reasons why the business has continued to grow, including the fact that smaller, less environmentally friendly refiners have disappeared from the scene. Rising silver prices have also encouraged companies to purge films they are no longer are legally required to maintain. Eliminating those files also frees up much needed valuable space in hospitals, medical facilities and document storage facilities.
CRE is able to source those documents based on referrals and its reputation in the industry. Newcomers may find it somewhat more challenging, DeWitt says.
That’s because some people got into the market when silver prices were rising, collected the films, and then disappeared without ever paying their clients.
“They appear when the market is up and disappear when the market is down,” he says.
His advice to medical facilities, hospitals and document storage facilities is “to do your due diligence. Make sure the company you’re dealing with is legitimate.”
DeWitt admits it’s difficult to predict where silver prices will go in the future.
The swings in silver prices are the result of “so much turmoil right now in Europe and even our own country as far as value of dollar,” he says, adding that many of the increases and decreases in silver prices are due to speculation, just as with the price of oil and other commodities.
“These are all commodities . . . a lot of them are highly speculative,” he says.
As far as a forecast for 2012, DeWitt puts silver at $35 an ounce. Within three years, he predicts the price will hit $40 an ounce.
One prognosticator, he notes, pegged the price of silver at more than $200 an ounce by 2013.
“Nobody knows for sure. If I knew all those answers (concerning the price of silver), you’d be calling me long distance to my beach house in the Caribbean,” he says with a laugh.
CRE pays clients either “spot pay” or on a “refining basis” for their X-ray film. Spot pay is based on the net weight per ounce of silver in each pound of film multiplied by the CRE Tradable Silver Market on the date of receipt. An average film lot of .04 ounces per pound and a silver market rate of $32.79 would equal a spot payment of $1.31 per net pound; a shipment of 10,000 pounds of film would result in a payment of $13,100.
Clients who elect to be paid on a refining basis have their payment based on the net silver yield in the process, minus a per pound refining charge. This can result in higher payments for clients whose films have higher silver content due to age, exposure or brand. CRE guarantees the payment on the refining basis will not be lower than the spot pay.
With CRE seemingly well positioned for the future, DeWitt, who is 71 years of age, may take a step back and “slow down.” He has had offers to sell the business in the past and has also looked into the possibility of selling it to the employees, many of whom have been with him for years.
With the inroads of digital, there is still one thing that he hasn’t been able to solve.
“I haven’t figured out a way to recycle pixels yet,” he says with a laugh.
(More information about CRE can be found on its website at www.creweb.com.)
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Medical Waste ManageMent APR -JUN 20126
medical waste management
Hospital in North Sydney, Cape Breton, part of the Cape Breton Regional Health Authority (CBRHA), will purchase energy from a biogas system that will derive fuel from 7,000 tons per-year of sewage sludge, food waste and compost.
Halifax-based BioGas Energy Inc. designed and will install a system to convert the waste via an anaerobic digester.
“We’ve created a unit that will capture a number of things,” says Dave Miller, a partner and the company’s vice president of business development. “With biogas, we’ll separate and purify the methane and the CO2, but we also produce a biomass which comes out of the backend, which we will gasify in a unit that creates heat or steam. The mixture of fuels that we will use, 60 percent will be from organics from the industrial/institutional/commercial sector, as well as biosolids from a sewage treatment plant and ‘compost overs,’ a material that is screened out by compost plants.”
The digester will either be located off-site from the hospital and the methane will be shipped to it via “bullets” or a gasification unit will be placed adjacent to the hospital.
The goal is to completely replace the one million liters of no. 2 fuel oil with biogas. A 20-year agreement has been signed with the regional municipality to secure the waste material and another 20-year agreement will soon be signed with the CBRHA to purchase energy from Miller’s company. The hospital is expected to save between $100,000 and $150,000 annually.
Should the system receive more waste than it can handle, Miller notes that he “would look at a third party technology. We know how far we can go with our system.”
The CBHRA contacted BioGas 2.5 years ago to discuss the
possibility of using biogas and this year construction is expected to begin on the digestion system, which should take about 12 months to become operational.
“The hospital was quite excited about the process and people at the CBHRA are always looking for ways to innovate,” says Miller. “They looked at our plant which we have been running for three years and is now used primarily for research. We’ve tested a variety of materials, including carrot, onion, and blueberry waste, as well as mink manure. The authority has asked us to consider adding another hospital for biogas use, but we have to make sure that we have enough waste to provide its fuel needs in the long-term.”
BioGas’s system will purify the methane and the CO2 and strip it out for sale as a commodity.
“A lot of anaerobic digesters built in Canada take the biogas and burn it to generate electricity,” says Miller, “but what happens with that process is that the methane burns and the CO2 is released into the atmosphere.”
There is a possibility for BioGas to sell the liquid stream as a fertilizer to farmers as most of the pathogens have been removed during the process; and to put it through the sewage system to be processed as water if the BOD is low enough.
The company is also in discussions regarding five new possible projects in Nova Scotia and neighboring provinces. BioGas’s system is a proven success with the food industry and those who have a need for a large thermal load.
“We can take this anywhere,” says Miller, who adds that this is the first hospital project he has worked on. “Our system is different from digestion
Innovative American & Canadian Healthcare Providers Embrace Alternative/Renewable FuelsContinued from page 3
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APR -JUN 2012 Medical Waste ManageMent 7
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systems used in Ontario and British Columbia because they tend to be farm-based and do nothing but take biogas and create electricity that they sell to the grid because there are feed-in tariffs, whereas, with our system we can use multiple waste streams, mix and match and create recipes to find the best mix to provide the highest yield of biogas, as well as multiple revenue streams.”
While Mississauga, Ontario-based European Power Systems Ltd. has not been involved in hospital projects, its president and CEO, Jan Buijk, Ing., says the potential to develop opportunities to generate biogas and biofuels are many and should be pursued.
“All our sales last year were biogas and landfill gas projects,” he says. “We definitely see a move to put as little into landfill sites and to start equalizing organic materials and this could be done with anaerobic digesters and composting facilities. We sold a project last year to Fraser Richmond Soil and Fiber in Richmond, British Columbia where green municipal waste goes through a composting process that produces methane for use in our cogeneration system.”
European Power Systems specializes in developing cogeneration projects that use biogas for the generation of power and heat, also referred to as combined heat and power (CHP) systems. These state of the art cogeneration systems are manufactured by 2G-Energietechnik from Germany who have worldwide already supplied more than 3000 such systems. Buijk notes that as more projects are approved and fulfill their potential, it is easier to bring various stakeholders together to work out the details and permit process because there is recognized consensus to
use more alternative fuels and help the environment. This is reflected by provincial governments that are pursuing strategies to develop alternative fuel projects and produce more of its power needs domestically. The State of California has led the way in the United States on this front.
“The Ontario government created a Green Energy Act and following that, started [various] programs where a rate structure was created that will
pay a premium for renewable resources such as wind, solar, water power, landfill and biogas,” says Buijk. This is helping to facilitate the transition from fossil to renewable fuels and projects are being developed in response to it.”
And as technologies improve to better harvest renewable resources to create energy, “the more widespread the use is and the more
attractive the economics are,” says Buijk, “and the more reliable these will get.”
Because the waste generated by industry, commerce and the r e s i d e n t i a l s e c t o r s i s c o n s t a n t and stable, he adds that it makes
sense to create systems to harvest these materials and divert them to processing centers.
“It’s all about the resources out there that can be utilized,” says Buijk.Zarecki agrees with Buijk, who serves on the Department of Energy’s
Hospital Energy Alliance Steering Committee.“We are trying to promote conservation and alternative energy use with
all healthcare systems across the country,” he says. “I came to Gundersen in 2008 and alternative energy was a little side thing that we started working on. It turned out to be an opportunity to really work on something that not only saves money, but is something that can really change the country and ultimately the world in reducing health care costs, improving our energy independence and improving the environment.”
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Medical Waste ManageMent APR -JUN 20128
medical waste management
California Nonprofit Wins Award for Environmentalism
San Leandro, Ca—MedShare, a nonprofit agency that collects and redistributes surplus medical supplies, recently won
Acterra’s 2012 Business Environmental Award for innovation with its plan to keep medical waste out of landfills. The non-profit diverted 228 tons of surplus such as sutures, gloves, gauze and syringes from local landfills in 2011.
MedShare has more than 30 Northern California hospitals participating in its innovative program to collect reusable medical equipment and supplies that would otherwise be discarded and redistribute them to health care facilities in developing countries and to community-based health care clinics in its home state. Donating systems include Kaiser-Permanente, Sutter Health and Dignity. In its 14 years, the organization says it has shipped 750 cargo containers of supplies to hospitals in 93 developing nations, accounting for more than two million cubic feet of landfill space saved.
The organization’s headquarters and its first distribution center opened in Atlanta in 1998, and the San Leandro distribution center is its second. For more information visit www.sanleandro.patch.com.
Links on Alternative Fuel Use by Institutions and BusinessesThe following links shed light on the use of alternative and biofuels in the United States
and Canada, as well as providing information and definitions of various technologies.
From the Department of Energywww.eere.energy.gov/buildings/energysmarthospitals/
From the Gundersen Health Systemhttp://www.gundluth.org:80/?id=4653&sid=1
From the Government of Nova Scotiahttp://www.gov.ns.ca/energy/renewables/public-education/bioenergy.asphttps://nsrenewables.ca:44309/bioenergy-definitions
From Go Green Canadahttp://gogreencanada.ucoz.com/index/biofuels_and_bioenergy/0-110
European Power Systems Ltd.www.epsenergy.ca
Innovative American & Canadian Healthcare Providers Embrace Alternative/Renewable FuelsContinued from page 7
Gundersen is also spreading the message to other hospitals via a consulting service it started to provide information on how to lower costs by conserving energy and how to successfully initiate alternative energy projects. As it expanded its renewable energy program, it began to receive many information requests from the medical community.
“We do it at a reasonable price to cover our costs,” says Zarecki, “and that they have somebody they can trust – we’re somebody in the healthcare industry who knows what works and what doesn’t. If they get serious about conservation, they almost always ask about renewable energy.”
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Feds First Settlement on a Data Breach Costs BXBS of TN $1.5 Million
Washington—BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee will pay $1.5 million in the federal government’s first case resulting from a health care data breach reported under a part of the 2009 stimulus bill. It is the first action resulting from a breach report required
by the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, part of the 2009 stimulus package.
Some 57 external hard drives were stolen from a BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee Chattanooga call center in 2009 and data on them included Social Security numbers, sound recordings and screen captures from customer service calls. The drives were never recovered, but there been no indication the data was misused. The company did not formally admit wrongdoing in the matter.
This fine is on top of what the insurer spent notifying customers and changing data security practices, a reported $17 million dealing with the breach of personal information belonging to more than 1 million people. That includes some $1.5 million paid to the U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights in a settlement. The company paid for one year of credit monitoring and protection for those people, with more intensive services for those whose Social Security numbers were stolen, and $6 million to encrypt every piece of stored data, as well as ensuring employees are trained to protect privacy.
“This settlement sends an important message that OCR expects health plans and health care providers to have in place a carefully designed, delivered and monitored HIPAA compliance program,” OCR Director Leon Rodriguez said in a news release.
For more information visit www.ama-assn.org.
New Robotic Drug Delivery System Maximizes Resources, Reduces Errors and Waste
Asheville, TN—Mission Health recently debuted a central fill pharmacy using one of the country’s first Robotic IV
Automation systems, or RIVA, using high-speed robotics, packaging machines and carousels to fill patient medication orders. The million-dollar technology lets the system produce in-house, individualized syringes and IV bags, and RIVA barcodes individual packages, so delivery is faster, safer and easier to verify.
The system thus works to reduce medical waste caused by having unused portions of medication and keep the meds viable longer. RIVA can make varying sizes of IV bags and portion out meds in a sterile environment, so meds can last longer with less risk for infection from humans. This is good for not only the health system but for society as a whole because it is claimed there are inadequate supplies of almost 200 medications used in surgeries and hospitalizations.
The pharmacy will eventually become the main hub for all medications and serve the entire health system.
For more information visit www.citizen-times.com.
Pennsylvania Hospital Goes Green with Building Practices, Recycling
North Centra l , PA—Evangel ica l Community Hospital is working to reduce its carbon footprint in ways that
include recycling over 155 tons of recyclable cardboard, magazines and catalogs, newspaper, office paper, clear glass, aluminum cans, and plastics as well as copper, antifreeze, batteries, computer systems, fluorescent tubes, and used oil. It has also constructed a new Surgical and Cardiovascular Expansion that opens this summer to include water efficient landscaping, daylighting, equipment efficiency, flooring with no petroleum-based adhesives, low-VOC paint, lighting and thermal control. The elements included in the design, construction and renovation of the building let the hospital operate more efficiently in the future and integrate green strategies and initiatives right from the start.
The changes are the result of employee efforts, led by a Green Team committee that started in 2009, to reduce the hospital’s impact on the environment and advocate for actions to reduce energy. The team continues to work toward that goal. The campus of the hospital is also free from tobacco and cigarette butt waste.
For more i n fo r mat ion v i s i t www.northcentralpa.com.
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Hospital Gloves and Garments Recycled Into Outdoor Furniture
According to a report in Plastics News (www.plasticsnews.com), Kimberly-Clark Corp and the recycler, TerraCycle, will be adding gloves to the mix of recycled hospital clean room and laboratory
garments that are made into plastic lumber, park benches, and picnic tables.TerraCycle collects, converts, and resells all waste materials as either
bulk plastics or as consumer products made with recycled content.Since the two companies began the pilot recycling program in October
2011, participating clean rooms and laboratories have contributed more than 7,000 pounds of garment waste, including coveralls, hoods, boot covers, hair nets, and masks. Requests for the collection of recyclables is increasing and the companies say they expect to recycle some 350,000 pounds in coming months.
To participate in the recycling program, companies can contact approved Kimberly-Clark Professional distributors to receive a package that has everything required to start garment recycling in their facilities. The package includes a bar code system for tracking and reporting of each customer’s waste reduction.
CVS Hit with $13.75 Million Settlement for Hazmat Violations
According to The Daily News (www.dailynews.com), Rhode Island-based CVS Pharmacy, Inc. agreed to a $13.75 million settlement for violating California environmental laws. The company also
has put in place environmental policies and training at all stores and hired contractors to handle hazardous waste.
CVS allegedly violated regulations for safe storage, handling and disposal of pharmaceutical, pharmacy waste, photographic chemicals and waste generated from spills and customer returns of hazardous products.
California health inspectors and prosecutors began looking into the chain’s hazardous material handling practices in 2010, after a similar investigation in Connecticut turned up problems with stores there. After California inspectors found and recorded evidence of violations going back more than seven years, they worked with CVS stores to correct storage, handling, transport and waste disposal practices to ensure compliance.
The settlement agreement was ordered by Ventura County Superior Court Judge Barbara Lane and negotiated by the Ventura, Los Angeles and San Diego county District Attorneys, and Los Angeles City Attorney Carmen Trutanich, on behalf of 45 different jurisdictions. Under the agreement, Trutanich’s office and other lead negotiators each will receive $950,000 in civil penalties. Dozens of fire and environmental health departments across the state will receive smaller amounts for participating in the investigation. CVS is permanently enjoined from violations of state environmental laws.
“CVS came to the table early and worked quickly to get into compliance,’’ said Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney Tina Nunes-Ober. “The result is a cleaner, safer environment and a level playing field for all similarly situated businesses.”
Gallup Hospital Cited for Hazardous Waste Handling
Gallup, NM—The Gallup Indian Medical Center has been fined $36,000 by the state Environmental Department, according to the Gallup Independent. Violations include improperly bagging
and transporting infectious waste. The 99-bed hospital, one of the largest in the U.S. Indian Health Service, treats American Indians and Alaskan Natives. For more information visit www.krqe.com.
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Dignity Health Practices Green Health by Eliminating Plastics Dyes
Santa Cruz, CA—Some 1,200 hospitals are now members of Practice GreenHealth (PGH), a nonprofit that is promoting environmental practices in the health care industry. They use their purchasing power to
compel makers of medical products to manufacture them with safer chemicals. Practice GreenHealth has now signed on 15 businesses, including Medline and Johnson & Johnson, to green the supply chain by identifying problematic materials and working to find alternatives that reduce or eliminate negative environmental effects.
Dignity Health, the fifth-largest health care system in the nation, is one of these PGH health care systems, and it says it is the first that will move to use dye-free plastic products such as bed pans, wash basins and drinking cups by the end of May. During the past five years, water use has been reduced systemwide by 9.8 percent, according to Dignity Health data, and it hope by 2020 to cut systemwide energy use 20%, buy 35% of energy from renewable sources, and cut greenhouse gas emissions 40% at each hospital.
One hospital, Dignity’s Dominican Hospital in Santa Cruz, has been recognized by the State of California for its recycling efforts and organic garden. The hospital uses intravenous bags made without phthalates, a chemical that produces developmental and reproductive system damage in lab animals. Such phthalates as well as 179 other chemicals that cause cancer in humans or animals, had been found in umbilical cord blood from newborns treated in NICUs,.
Dignity Health has also diverted in 2011 almost 100 tons of medical equipment from landfills, saving $5.6 million. It eliminated 1.3 tons of red plastic and 73,000 tons of corrugated packaging waste through the use of reusable sharps containers. For more information visit www.mercurynews.com.
OCR Audits Target Healthcare Entities Now, Partners in the Future
Cleveland—The nationwide audit program of the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) to find and correct violations to HIPAA/HITECH compliance have never been higher for medical
care providers, insurers and the businesses that support them, says Stacy Chubak Hinners, an attorney at Buckley King LPA, in a recent issue of Corporate Compliance Insights. The act extended oversight of HIPAA to business associates of covered entities like billing agencies, law firms and accountants and made them subject to even larger criminal and civil penalties under a four-tier system. Last year, says Hinners, OCR reached a $1 million settlement against Massachusetts General Hospital after an employee left records of sixty-six patients on a subway and imposed an $865,000 fine against the University of California Los Angeles Health System when some employees looked at celebrity patients’ medical records.
This year, enforcement and penalties are expected to grow even higher under a proactive Privacy & Security Audit Program, as KPMG conducts random audits under a $9 million contract, this year for health care providers, insurers and clearinghouses but to be extended after this to other business partners. It is important for covered entities and their business partners to be ready by ensuring that HIPAA privacy and security protocols are in place and updated to HITECH’s requirements, that employees are following them, and that compliance efforts be documented and accessible. Go to www.corporatecomplianceinsights.com/hipaa-compliance-why-stakes-higher-now-than-ever-before for more.
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Study: Do Digital Records Cut Health Costs?
Research published in Health Affairs (www.healthaffairs.org) has found that doctors using computers to track tests, like X-rays and MRI, ordered far more tests than doctors relying on paper records. The study showed physicians with computerized access to previous image
results ordered tests on 18% of their visits, vs. 12.9% for those doctors without the technology, a 40% higher rate. The gap was 70% for more expensive image tests such as MRIs and computerized tomography scans. The research was based on a survey by the National Center for Health Statistics using data from more than 28,000 patient visits by more than 1,100 doctors.
This means, to some, that computerized patient records may not be the road to cutting health care costs. It has been promulgated by the RAND Corporation that electronic health records could generate as much as $80 billion a year in cost savings as a way to justify the amount of federal spending that has gone into a switch to digital health records.
The data were from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey, which is an assessment of how medical care is practiced and included any kind of tracking images, no matter how old or isolated the function, while today’s electronic health records are meant to give doctors an integrated view of a patient’s care. The study did not ask why physicians in computerized offices ordered more tests and is seen as a minority opinion when other studies are looked at.
A study published last year in Health Affairs surveyed articles in professional journals in recent years on electronic health records and found 92% were positive about the efficiency and quality of care offered by electronic records.
Report: Does HIPAA Add to Security? Trends in Security Explored
Washington—A new report, the 2012 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data, the third part of
Kroll’s bi-annual survey of healthcare providers, finds that a decade and a half after the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act that increasing compliance with the act has not contributed to increased security of healthcare data. It reports a rise in data breaches in the past few years in the face of increased regulatory activity concerning reporting and auditing procedures. The report was commissioned by Kroll Advisory Solutions.
Respondents in the 2012 survey said they were more prepared than before to meet data security risks, a 6.40 rating on a scale of one to seven, compared to 6.06 in 2010 and 5.88 in 2008. Some 96% of respondents reported that they had held a formal risk analysis at their organization in the past year. Despite this, more respondents, 27%, reported a security breach during the year, up from 19% in 2010 and 13% in 2008. The 2012 reports that human error remains the greatest threat to healthcare data security, with 79% of security breaches perpetrated by employees, and 56% of reported breaches due to unauthorized access to information by an employee.
The mobility of patient data due to new technologies such as mobile devices is another leading factor in healthcare data breaches. Plus, due to outsourcing of patient data, third party breaches are up. Some 18% of breaches were due to third parties access, and 28% said “sharing information with external parties” is cause of risk to data, up from 18% in 2010 and 6% in 2008.
Lisa Gallagher, senior director of privacy and security for the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, said “Healthcare organizations need to ensure that their business associates are taking every precaution to safeguard this information. We know that most security breaches often are the result of actions taken by employees, so background checks, employee training and continued monitoring of policies and procedures are steps all covered entities should ensure are taken by their business associates.”
There continues to be confusion about who is responsible for data security. When asked which individual within their organization was responsible for the security of patient data, the answers ranged dramatically. Responsibility is becoming more widespread throughout the industry, and everyone from cleaners to physicians comes into contact with patient data in formats from computers to paper records to mobile devices. A copy of the 2012 HIMSS Analytics Report: Security of Patient Data can be found at www.krolladvisorysolutions.com.
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APR -JUN 2012 Medical Waste ManageMent 13
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Are Privacy Curtains Source of Hospital Infections?
Research recently published by the American Journal for Infection Control (www.ajicjournal.org) reveals 92% of hospital privacy curtains were contaminated with potentially dangerous bacteria
such as MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) and VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococcus) within one week of being laundered. This research, conducted at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine, advances a growing body of knowledge pointing to contaminated surfaces within the patient environment as a potentially strong contributor to healthcare-associated infections. The same research group recently submitted for publication a follow-up, randomized, controlled study, examining the effectiveness of PurThread privacy curtains in a clinical setting.
The study, titled, “Hospital Privacy Curtains are Frequently and Rapidly Contaminated with Potentially Pathogenic Bacteria,” monitored 43 privacy curtains over a three-week period in a medical ward, surgical intensive care unit and a medical ICU. Privacy curtains were chosen for the study as they are frequently touched by healthcare workers before coming in contact with patients, and because the curtains are difficult to clean and disinfect. As such, in most hospitals, privacy curtains are infrequently changed, often only after dirt is visible.
Studies show 20%-40% of HAIs can be traced to the contamination of healthcare worker’s hands. The immediate action healthcare workers can take today is to wash their hands after touching privacy curtains and before touching the patient. In addition, a developing market for antimicrobial products, for both soft and hard surfaces, holds the potential to help hospitals continuously reduce infectious material on frequently touched surfaces.
Drug-Resistant Microbes are Found in Soils Due to Use of Antibiotics in Animal Care
Warsaw, Poland—According to a study by researchers at the University of Warsaw, antibiotics used in animals are being seen as the culprit in the rising incidence of drug-resistant bacterial
diseases among humans, as these antibiotic-proof pathogens are found in the soils of the natural environment. The researchers tested soil samples from farms, gardens, composted soil and forest soil and found that the biggest diversity of antibiotic-resistant bacteria was found in vegetable garden and fruit orchard soils which had been treated with manure from antibiotic-fed animals. The soils not treated with manure, such as forest soil and plant compost, carried the lowest levels of drug-resistant microbes, and bacteria resistant to multiple drugs was found only in the vegetable garden soil. Although antibiotic residues are created naturally in soils, the rate of resistance to human drugs was higher in the soil treated with manure than the rate that occurred naturally in soils. Of the bacterial cultures examined in the study, 43% were resistant to streptomycin, 35% to erythromycin and 10% to tetracycline.
Domestically, some 80% of all antibiotics are used for food animals. First author Magdelena Popowska said that the findings “should assist in the development of regulations regarding the use of antibiotics in the broader environment e.g. in plant protection products, fish farming and industry,” and that the use of antibiotics “should be restricted to dangerous bacterial infections, and to strict medical supervision. This cannot be emphasized strongly enough.”
The FDA recommends that drugs important to human medicine not be used for animal growth promotion and be supervised by a veterinarian when used to prevent or treat animal disease, but these guidelines have not been finalized. The FDA withdrew its plan to ban tetracycline from use in animal feed last year.
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Healthier Hospitals Initiative
Boston—A project called the Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) involves over 500 hospitals across the country representing
over $20 billion in buying power, using that power to lower energy costs, reduce waste, encourage recycling and buy “environmentally preferable” materials as a continuation of the green building initiative. The Healthier Hospitals Initiative partnership is being coordinated by Practice Greenhealth, Health Care Without Harm, and the Center for Health Design. HHI’s sponsoring health systems include Advocate Health Care, Bon Secours Health System, Catholic Health Initiatives, Dignity Health, Hospital Corp. of America, Inova Health System, Kaiser Permanente, MedStar Health, Partners HealthCare, Tenet Health Systems, and Vanguard Health Systems. Until 2015, HHI will gather data to explore the effect its activity is making on the health of patients, workers and communities, as well as on reducing health care costs. Kaiser Permanente estimates HHI can help it save about $26 million annually, and Dignity Health claims a savings of $5.4 million in 2010 by increasing the amount of reusable products it purchased for its hospitals and clinics.
One hospital system, Partners Healthcare, has plans to cut energy consumption by at least 25% by 2014, and one of its hospitals has eliminated bottled water and now uses filtered tap water to save the cost per serving of water from 98 to 2 cents. It is negotiating a contract to replace polyvinyl chloride used in IV bags and tubing with other materials because of fears based on European Union studies that chemicals used in PVC can create health problems. Partners feels that about 85% of the PVC it uses in the IV bag systems can be replaced and that it can save millions of dollars by lessening use of PVC. Partners is also looking at replacing vinyl composition tile with rubber flooring as it is deemed more comfortable and less expensive to maintain, and vinyl wall covering with coatings that are more “breathable.” .
Partners’ Brigham & Women’s Hospital in one month used 23,000 medical devices that were sterilized and reprocessed instead of single-use. The FDA has a list of products and manufacturers of products approved for reprocessing which can be sent to a third-party, sterilized, repackaged, FDA-tested, and returned, saving about 60%.
Partners also works to reduce solid waste, with Massachusetts General Hospital generating 800 tons of solid waste per month, with 49 tons of that plastic, but the hospital hopes to improve that amount. Finding space to accommodate the recycling and getting approval from infectious control staff are the two biggest challenges. Partners currently does not use compostable plastics, although significant amounts of food waste generated in meal preparation are being composted, and the system wants to find biobased plastics that are not cost prohibitive. One worry is verifying antimicrobial claims of materials producers.
For more information visit www.commonhealth.wbur.org.
Medical Suppliers Shirking Green Duties, Says Report
A recent study by Green Research, “Benchmarking Sustainability Goals and Practices: Medical Equipment and Supplies,” found only four of the top 10 manufacturers of medical equipment and supplies have publically announced any environmental sustainability goals.
They are Baxter International, BD, Covidien and Medtronic, all of whom have released specific, quantitative goals. Boston Scientific, Smith & Nephew, St. Jude Medical, Stryker, Thermo Fisher Scientific and Zimmer Holdings have not released any such goals.
Waste management was the biggest environmental area addressed by the four, and they expressed only three goals related to greenhouse gas emissions, which many other industries find a higher priority. Sustainability also included issues such as social, ethical and social responsibility programs, but the environmental goals are the ones most often quantified. And even though the companies have set environmental goals, they are usually focused on internal operations.
Green Research also examined how the manufacturers show sustainability program information on their websites. Baxter and Medtronic provided the most comprehensive information about third-party assurance, reporting of key data and provision of sustainability contact information.
The report did praise Stryker and BD for creating businesses that reclaim, recycle or remanufacture used medical products, which also helps hospitals reduce waste and creates a new revenue stream. The report can be purchased at shop.greenresearch.com/products/benchmarking-sustainability-goals-and-practices-medical-equipment-and-supplies.
Florida Residents Fight Integrated Waste Management Incinerator
Jacksonville, FL—A proposed medical waste incinerator facility in Baker County, being planned by the Pennsylvania-based Integrated Waste Management Systems, is being opposed by some county residents.
A Baker County Press poll found 54% of respondents said any new development or jobs would be welcome, and only 29% were worried about the potential impacts to the environment. The project is being touted as a job creator, and the country only has 57 active bio-medical waste facilities, with Florida having only one left for open use. IWMS did extensive needs analysis of areas with multiple major medical facilities and access to major interstate systems, including Georgia and Ohio, but Baker County won out.
IWMS representatives said the facility complies with very stringent 2009 federal air emissions regulations, which become fully effective in 2014. In addition, they intend to implement a number of safety protocols to manage potential risks.
For more information visit www.bakercountypress.com.
Central Line Infections Decline in U.S. Hospitals
Atlanta, GA—According to a recent Reuters article, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention point to a significant reduction in “central line” bloodstream infections.
“Nationwide, there was a 32 percent decline in central line bloodstream infections from 2009-2010,” says Dr. Scott Fridkin, deputy chief of the surveillance branch in the CDC’s Division of Health Care Quality Promotion.
A central line is a treatment tube that is inserted into a large neck or chest vein. Improper insertion and hygiene procedures can heighten the risk of germs entering the body and causing serious bloodstream infections.
Fridkin notes that the decline was even greater–35 percent–for intensive care patients. The reduction in the infections caused by central line and other surgical procedures can be attributed to improved national and state prevention efforts, the doctor believes.
More than 5,000 acute-care hospitals report data to the National Health Care Safety Network. Launched in 2006, the system allows hospitals to compare their infection rates.
For more information visit www.chicagotribune.com.
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TOP STORIESInnovative American and Canadian
Healthcare Providers Embrace Alternative/Renewable Fuels
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Planning for the Future – CRE’s X-Ray Vision
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Feds First Settlement on a Data Breach Costs BXBS of TN $1.5 Million
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Study: Do Digital Records Cut Health Costs?PAGe 12
Medical Suppliers Shirking Green Duties, Says Report
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