Medical Waste Disposal Cost Maryland?
Is your Healthcare facility paying a premium to treat Regulated Medical and Biohazard Waste?
Medical Waste Disposal Costs, Maryland - Virginia - Washington D.C & Surrounding Areas
Through our medical waste minimization programs, we can help you reduce biohazard disposal cost and maximize efficiency without increasing risk.
Medical waste complexity made simple in Maryland – Virginia – Washington D.C.
Is your hospital or healthcare practice in the Washington DC Metro area treating non-infectious waste such as packaging and disposable patient gowns the same way it treats regulated “red bag” waste? In the everyday hustle and bustle of patient care, even the best-trained staff may mis-categorize waste. A good medical waste minimization program can help reduce your total waste costs. We can help you develop and execute such a program and tailor it to your facility’s exact needs.
Our integrated approach, focused on creating sustainable, efficient solutions for healthcare facilities, enables us to rectify such inefficiency.
Best Practices
Our healthcare solutions experts are well-versed in the ever-changing regulations that affect your institution. Together, we can assess your current operations and help you implement best practices for achieving your economic and environmental goals, while safeguarding your employees, the community at large and your reputation.
Through our waste segregation programs, our regulatory and process specialists work closely with your staff to:
Through our waste segregation programs, our regulatory and process specialists work closely with your staff to:
- Develop processes that safely and efficiently direct your institution’s waste to the most appropriate containers
- Reduce your regulated medical waste volumes
- Reduce related treatment costs
- Prevent waste-related regulatory issues
- Be responsible stewards of the environment
Put waste in its proper place
Whether your facility is a hospital, surgical center, dialysis center, blood bank, nursing home, or veterinary clinic, our disposal management style can reduce your medical waste disposal costs by 50 percent over traditional companies. The key to reducing the volume of medical waste, without increasing risk, is to have energized staffs that are educated and motivated to classify waste accurately. This takes training. We will work with you to develop the strategies necessary for your staff to understand the various categories of waste so they can reduce the volume that flows into higher-cost such as the regulated medical waste stream. In this way, you’ll be able to recover a greater portion of your over-all waste costs.
So exactly how much does it cost to dispose of Biohazard & Medical Waste?
Are you wondering if you’re being overcharged for your disposal service? Maybe you are considering opening a new practice or adding a location and what the additional cost of medical waste disposal would be. No matter why we are here with the solutions. There many variables involved with the price for disposing of medical waste and can vary greatly from town to town.
Issues that can affect Regulated Biohazard, Sharps & Medical waste disposal costs?
- Waste Volume
- Location
- Frequency
- Waste Type - Classification
Understanding Your Waste Streams & Difference’s In Handling & Disposal
For the purpose of this article and reducing medical waste disposal cost, it is also important to understand the over-all waste streams found in the healthcare setting.
It is difficult to even think about reducing medical waste disposal costs without first knowing your waste streams. Healthcare produces a diverse set of wastes that require management. An important starting point is to assess what types of waste a typical healthcare facility produces and begin to understand who is responsible for tracking and managing each waste stream. The next stage will involve determining the volumes of each waste generated and the associated costs. It is not strange in healthcare to find that multiple people—or no one—has historically been responsible for tracking a particular waste stream.
Additionally, it is not uncommon to find that different departments manage the costs associated with different waste streams and no one department has ever taken the time or responsibility to add up the various waste streams cross-department to get a clear understanding of how much total waste is generated and how much is spent on waste removal. The amount and costs for each waste stream is dependent on current environmental programs, regional regulations and hauling fees.
Additionally, it is not uncommon to find that different departments manage the costs associated with different waste streams and no one department has ever taken the time or responsibility to add up the various waste streams cross-department to get a clear understanding of how much total waste is generated and how much is spent on waste removal. The amount and costs for each waste stream is dependent on current environmental programs, regional regulations and hauling fees.
-Solid Waste – This waste stream is also called municipal waste, black bag, clear bag, or non-regulated medical waste. This is general trash, similar to what you would find in a hotel but with more plastics and packaging.
-Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) – This waste stream is also called potentially infectious material, red bag waste or biohazardous waste. RMW is regulated state-by-state, but also falls under OSHA’s Blood-borne Pathogen Standard.
-RCRA Hazardous Waste – Hazardous waste is defined and regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and is either a “listed” waste or meets the characteristics of a hazardous waste. Individual states may have stricter regulations than the EPA, so management requirements can vary state-to-state.
-Pharmaceutical Waste – Some pharmaceutical waste is considered RCRA hazardous while a large majority may not require handling as hazardous waste but should receive special disposal considerations, including controlled substances. As regulatory scrutiny of pharmaceutical waste increases, it is critical for healthcare organizations to understand the appropriate management and disposal methods.
-Universal Waste – EPA has designated via its Universal Waste Rule that certain hazardous wastes—when sent for recycling, may be managed under a less stringent set of regulations and do not have to be counted toward total hazardous waste volumes that determine generator status.
Exactly how do these affect my medical waste disposal cost? Let's break it down a little more.
Location:
Location:
Why does my location matter? Location can affect over-all medical waste disposal costs. There are two main reasons, logistics and local regulations. When addressing regulations it is pretty simple. Certain States have regulated medical waste regulations on how long you can store biohazard waste at your facility. Some States even require this waste to be picked up as often as once a month, whether or not your container is full at the time. Now let’s talk logistics, are there other facilities in your area that are using the same service? Volume and route density are the “Key” to affordable and reduced disposal cost.
EXAMPLE-1: If a medical waste disposal company arrives at a medical building where it has many customers, including your office this tends to drive the price down for everyone. Why? Because they can pick-up multiple medical waste boxes at one location in a shorter period of time. Your practice and your neighbors get to enjoy the route density of everyone being in close proximity.
EXAMPLE-2: You are what we would call the lone wolf practice, on top of a mountain, somewhere in a location far, far away. Well, if you are the only practice around and we have to drive 25 miles or more to get to you, the price is going up. We have to factor in time/labor of technician, fuel, vehicle maintenance, return trip and more.
Frequency & Volume:
When considering volume it is important to look at how appropriate your service is in comparison to the needs of your individual practice. If you are getting medical waste containers picked up that are only halfway or less full, you are not being serviced properly and are throwing money away. In terms of frequency, if you are doing 1 box every two-weeks, but could wait to have 2 medical waste boxes picked up once a month. We could negotiate you a better price, the more boxes picked up at one time tends to drive the over-all cost for you and us down. This is just one example a ways we can work with your healthcare facility to customize a waste disposal service plan that is compliant but more affordable for you.
So what should the average cost of medical waste disposal be? Well medical, biohazard disposal waste costs can swing drastically and depend on a lot of variables. With so many options affecting the over-all price. Each variable is a key factor in determining your per-box medical waste cost. Service should be flexible enough to fit your individual needs and calculated appropriately for your size practice, this means big savings for you! It also means pricing can and will definitely vary.
