The Johns Hopkins University Hospital has saved $100,000 over a number of months by reducing its medical waste by 16 percent and by putting it in the correct containers.
The hospital also re-uses certain one-time devices after a re-processor has sterilized and repackaged the tools to get more savings and installed energy-efficient lighting, according to one of the physicians leading the “green” effort there.
[See also: Green practices in the operating room can mean big savings]
“Red bag” trash, which is regulated medical waste, costs Hopkins about $.25 per pound, while clear bag waste costs the hospital $.04 a pound, said Dr. Martin Makary, a surgeon, medical professor and researcher at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, Md.
Regulated medical waste accounts for just 20 percent of the trash that is produced but 34 percent of what is paid for. Regulated but hazardous medical waste is only 4 percent of waste but accounts for 52 percent of the cost. “There is a lot of money in trash. About one half of that trash doesn’t need to be there,” he said at an Oct. 27 cost containment conference.
After studying the problem, a team at Hopkins started an education campaign about red bag waste and positioned the appropriate containers more effectively. Clinicians often throw waste into the closest trash receptacle, he said. They are not thinking about walking three feet further to put waste in the correct bag.
Makary, who is also a patient safety and quality researcher, and colleagues studied the literature for risks with re-using refurbished one-time devices utilized in operating rooms and found none.
Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic reprocess increasingly more each year, he said. A lot of hospitals may be spending more on waste and not even know it.
For example, blood pressure cuffs, clamps and orthopedic drill bits and burrs, scissors and staplers can be reprocessed. Titanium cylinders that surgeons use to put laparoscopic instruments through in so-called “keyhole” surgery can be refurbished. “Many instruments don’t even touch the patient,” he said.
A lot of the instruments that are reprocessed have been opened but never used as the surgical team may take instruments out of their packaging ahead of time to be prepared. “It is a cultural issue and the way physicians practice,” Makary said.
To assure safety, the Food and Drug Administration approves the reprocessing company, which returns refurbished, sterilized and tested instruments and devices that the hospital originally sent to them. A 2008 Government Accountability Office evaluation found no additional health risks from using reprocessed instruments.