Arlington, VA — Hospital units that consistently follow standard safety precautions experience nearly 40% fewer needlesticks and other sharps injuries than other units, a new study has found. According to the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, around 385,000 sharps injuries – involving…
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that opioid analgesics manufacturers are to be required to make pre-paid mail-back envelopes available to dispose of unused opioid analgesics. It issued a notice to all opioid analgesics manufacturers to submit the proposed modification to the…
Hospitals across the country eagerly await the release of The Leapfrog Group’s Safety Grades in the spring and fall each year. Leah Binder, president and CEO of the organization, spoke with Becker’s about why her organization’s A-F grades are important. “We believe our safety grade…
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (FOX Carolina) – Registered nurses at Mission Hospital in Asheville are holding a rally to highlight their patient safety concerns and other unsafe working conditions. National Nurses Organizing Committee/National Nurses United (NNOC/NNU) said nurses at Mission Hospital want to bring awareness to increased…
Recently, I decided to throw away all my old cancer drugs, a small mountain of orange-and-white plastic bottles. Cancer no longer deserved a whole shelf. It had been three years since the diagnosis, a year and a half since my last chemo treatment, six months…
Healthcare is a highly regulated field, and for good reason. A small mistake could cost a life. But risk-averse tendencies extend far beyond clinical care to create a clunky, wasteful system. The pandemic helped healthcare providers see how nimble and innovative they could be while…
Health care is a major polluter both in terms of emissions and contributions to landfills. The combined health sectors of the United States, Australia, England, and Canada emit an estimated 748 million metric tons of greenhouse gases each year, more than all but the six…
Medical waste is a critically important, but often overlooked issue that impacts not just businesses and medical professionals, but society as a whole. As more and more of the world’s population demands access to better medical care, careful handling becomes an even larger concern. To…
It is important to properly understand what medical or biohazardous waste should be disposed of in red trash bags. These bags are specifically designed to contain solid or liquid items that are contaminated with blood or other potentially infectious materials (OPIM). Medical waste can be…
Like many other industries, the medical device industry has been undergoing changes recently in order to become more sustainable. Unfortunately, strict regulations mean that changes in this industry are quite slow when compared to others, but positive change is underway. There are various steps that…