Medical Waste Disposal Quote
Kevin Noel
What is Pathological Waste? Examples and Disposal
Understanding the proper management of pathological waste generated by healthcare facilities is important to prevent the spread of infectious agents and protect healthcare workers and the environment.
Topics
Key Takeaways
What is Pathological Waste?
Pathological waste is a type of biohazardous waste generated by healthcare facilities that perform surgical procedures on humans or animals.
Pathological or anatomical waste is defined as: human or animal body parts, surgery specimens, tissues, or fluids removed during surgical procedures that are suspected to contain infectious agents.
Pathological waste is commonly found in healthcare facilities and surgery centers.
Examples of Pathological Waste:
- Tissues
- Organs
- Bodily Fluids
- Animal Carcasses
- Other human or animal tissues, organs, body parts, anatomical waste, or materials involved in surgical procedures.
Classifying Pathological Waste
It is important to properly classify your pathological waste.
Just because the waste fits into the category of pathological waste does not mean that it should be treated as pathological waste.
For example, If pathological wastes came into contact with chemotherapy drugs, it would need to be labeled and disposed of accordingly.
Pathological and Regulated Medical Waste Management
Similar to other hazardous waste streams, pathological waste should be properly segregated.
Depending on the state you operate in, medical waste generators are required to segregate pathological waste from other red bag waste.
After pathological waste is generated, it should be placed into a red bag and tied to prevent any leaking. This red bag should go into pathological waste containers which are appropriately labeled as "PATH" or "Pathological waste" visible from both sides.
Leaking is common among pathology wastes due to bodily fluids, so ensuring the waste and all potentially infectious material are properly contained is important to prevent the risk of disease.
Pathological waste and other medical waste should be stored in a designated storage not to exceed the timeline outlined by your state's regulations.
Medical facilities will collect and contain their pathological and hazardous waste until a medical waste disposal company comes to collect and transport the waste for treatment.
Collection Frequency
Pathological waste must be disposed of at a compliant frequency. The required service frequency typically varies based on the amounts of biohazardous waste your facility generates.
It is important to have scheduled pickups with a medical waste disposal service to ensure all of your path waste is being disposed of appropriately.
You may even decide to have more frequent pickups than what is required since pathological waste can smell.
Pathological Waste Disposal
It is important that healthcare waste management is properly segregating and labeling all waste streams because certain medical waste streams require different methods of disposal to sterilize the waste of any potentially infectious material.
For example, pathological waste disposal involves incineration whereas other red bag waste can be treated using autoclaves or microwave technology.
The responsibility is ultimately on the medical waste generating facility to ensure they are following all state and federal guidelines involved in generating, storing, and disposing of pathological waste.
Improper handling can result in the spread of dangerous pathogens, so it is crucial your facility is knowledgeable around all waste streams generated.
If medical facilities generate medical waste of any kind, it is crucial that they retain manifest and destruction records for their waste.
Waste Segregation
Proper segregation of regulated medical waste is not just for pathological waste.
Waste should be segregated into the following properly labeled and color coded containers to ensure proper medical waste disposal:
- Biohazardous Waste
- Sharps Waste
- Pathological Waste
- Non-Hazardous Pharmaceutical Waste
- Hazardous Waste
- Trace Chemotherapy Waste
Medical waste is heavily regulated and following state and federal regulations is essential in protecting healthcare workers, the environment, and your facility from penalties.
State Regulations
Always refer to your federal and state governments regulations regarding biomedical waste disposal. Hazardous materials can cause serious health issues if mishandled and regulations vary from state to state.
What is perfectly compliant for disposal of pathological waste in one state may result in fines in another.
Handling pathological materials is no guessing matter - if you are not confident you are handling your hazardous wastes correctly, get in contact with a medical waste disposal company who specializes in handling and disposing of medical waste.
We are experts in the disposal of pathological waste and are ready to help with your pathological and anatomical waste needs.
We used to use a National Company but they just kept jacking our fees up all the time. We switched to Eco Medical Waste and they cut our invoices in half.
Eco Medical Waste is always professional and timely. We appreciate their business and services.
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We offer medical waste disposal and management in all of California. Eco Medical was founded in far Northern California and has rapidly expanded to cover the entirety of California.
