How to Efficiently Move Waste Through Your Hospital

If there’s one thing hospitals generate more than any other facility it’s medical waste. In the fast-paced healthcare environment, there’s little time to waste on unwieldy containers or transport systems that bog down staff. Not only does your hospital need an efficient system, but it needs one that can respond to the varying needs of numerous departments, some who may need chemotherapeutic waste, others that might need surgical waste containers and the vast majority that require sharps containers, all at varying rates of disposal. 

Fresh containers need to be moved into care spaces and filled containers need to be moved out for safe storage and pickup. All this means a lot of movement is taking place, and during that interior transportation time, accidents can happen, and other issues can arise. That’s why it’s important to create an efficient system that streamlines the movement of waste while it remains inside your facilities.   

TOPICS WE WILL COVER:

1 / Challenges of Transporting Waste Through Hospitals

2 / Preparing Waste for Transport 

3 / Add Efficiency and Safety to Medical Waste Movements 

4 / Daniels Bulk Mounting Solutions

5 / Daniels Storage Solutions 

6 / Benefits of a Better System

7 / Ready to Make the Move to a More Efficient Internal Waste Transport System  

Challenges of Transporting Waste Through Hospitals
 

When moving filled medical waste containers out of care areas and into storage, waste must be stored in rigid containers and tightly closed with a lid. Too often, in traditional medical waste removal scenarios, this required the use of individual medical waste dollies which are inefficient and still require further steps before waste is removed from the facility. 
 

Negative Aspects of Traditional Medical Waste Movement:

• Cluttered: Bins requiring individual movement can become backlogged, leading to a bottleneck of medical waste containers which need to be processed before pickup. 
• Unsightly: Since there is no efficient way to move multiple bins at the same time, filled bins can accumulate in hallways and patient areas.
• Unpleasant: When medical waste can’t be moved efficiently it can linger in hallways, corridors and patient care areas. This can cause odours and other unpleasant side effects to occur, including staff mixing up receptacles. 
• Potentially Dangerous: The longer medical waste is left out unattended in public areas, particularly with unsecured lids, the greater the risk of accidents or tampering occuring. To prevent this, it’s important to have a tamper-proof system as well as one that is easily moved to secure disposal pick-up locations as soon as it reaches capacity. 

Another area that can be addressed with greater efficiency is the single-container move. If a staff member moves containers individually, not only is this wasted time and labour, but it also exponentially increases the chances of an accident occurring during those trips.  

Preparing Waste for Transport

Once waste containers reach their final destination within the hospital, they typically require an additional prepartion process that consumes significant amount of staff time. From removing bags from containers to placing in transport containers, these extra steps can be inefficient and open staff up to accidents and injury. This can also include the extra steps of ensuring bags are the proper distance of overlap over the containers and providing the proper labelling and weight. 

Daniels offers a way to help eliminate many of these steps. For instance, by providing a reusable container, there are no bags to move, transport or fit to specific containers. This takes the chance of bags spilling, tearing or being damaged, out of the medical waste equation. Since improper handling at this stage can open a hospital up for risk, self-contained units present a game-changing evolution that can simplify your team’s efforts. 

Add Efficiency and Safety to Medical Waste Movements
 

Hospitals throughout Canada can benefit from an intelligent suite of mounting brackets, stands and carts that support easy mobility of either one or many waste containers. Imagine the time it takes to move one container now can be used to safely manoeuvre a bulk quantity with ease through the hospital environment. Save labour, time and further minimise risk with Daniels' unique waste mobility system. 

Daniels Bulk Mounting Solutions

Daniels Bulk Mounting is an all-in-one system which optimises hospital space, helps to conserve time spent on moving waste, and enhances infection control protocols – all at the same time. The beauty of this system is that it’s been holistically engineered to address common issues and challenges during all points in waste container movement.  Here’s how: 

• Our Bulk Mounting carts are designed to easily transport multiple containers securely, clearing out logjams of waste containers and helping to keep patients and staff safe and satisfied. 
• The system also includes wall mounts that help stage containers and keep them secure. 
• Finally, with Daniels providing pick up and disposal of medical waste, you can feel confident in our transport safety as our trucks are custom fitted to hold containers in a suspension lock that nearly eliminates any risk of cross-contamination. 
   

Daniels Storage Solutions

These internal bulk delivery cart systems pair perfectly with Daniels smart container system, such as the Sharpsmart sharps container. It’s the first reusable sharps waste containment system of its kind that allows your staff to say goodbye to bags of medical waste. It helps prevent needlestick injuries by minimising overfill, bounce accidents and tampering with an ingenious design not found on any other container system in Canada. Its hands-free design helps to vastly reduce the risk of cross-contamination. 

Benefits of a Better System

As you can see, addressing the inefficiencies of waste movement within hospitals can have profoundly positive results. Benefits include:
 

Freeing Up Hospital Space

Enhance patient and staff satisfaction, improve review scores and improve the environment of the hospital by using containers that are streamlined and out of the way. With an efficient bulk movement system, there’s less filled containers sitting around waiting for transport. Finally, storage rooms can become examples of efficiency with a multi-stacking method like Daniels offers. 

Reduce Contamination and Accidents

Because Daniels transport accessories lock containers in place, there’s no risk of spillage or other accidents like with traditional carts and dollies. Containers always remain fixed in an upright mounted position.

Reducing Costs

Equip your staff to work smarter, rather than harder with Daniels' multi-container approach to waste movement throughout the hospital environment. With it, you can cut labour time by consolidating the movement of medical waste into secure, bulk cart movements, reducing the need for extraneous trips and minimising the hours medical waste movement consumes.This efficiency extends to storage and loading dock areas where the container preparation process is as simple as locking our reusable containers into place. Typically staff would spend time on sorting, moving and rearranging containers to fit into a docking area. Now their movements can be simplified and efficient.  

Ready to Make the Move to a More Efficient Internal Waste Transport System

Daniels helps hospitals in Canada every day to make the switch to a better, more user-friendly, intelligent design that cuts costs and risks, giving hospital staff and administration a system everyone prefers. Reach out to Daniels to begin a conversation about your specific needs. At Daniels we tailor our services to only provide what your healthcare facilities needs, and none of what it doesn’t. We can help make moving medical waste safer and more streamlined with just a few simple and smart changes. 

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