Healthcare Linens and Their Medical Aspects

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In order to save your costs on medical wastes and avoid any health hazards, the biohazard waste disposal companies advise segregating the wastes carefully.

And rightly so, since the medical wastes could be of various types and differ a great deal in terms of materials and contamination etc. All due to this, the disposal agencies provide proper and approved waste discard containers.

These containers and bags etc. are highly according to the wastes you need to store. For instance, sharps need some really good and strong containers to prevent penetration.

Apart from these strong ones, one of the major components of these medical wastesis the linens which find multiple uses and thus need a differential attention.

A debate, that has always been a major one, is relating the linens being medical wastes or not. Let us find this out as you read along:

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Uses Of Healthcare Linens:

Any kind of healthcare center- whether a giant hospital, or a private practice center- all of these could never function without clean linens.

Right from medical gowns to blankets, beddings, sheets, towels and other major components, linens find hoards of applications in the healthcare industries. However, do the hospitals throw away the soiled linens, or discard them similar to other medical wastes, when they get smeared?

No! In fact, most of these are laundered and used again. And even when they get smeared a lot with blood, body fluids and other contaminating chemicals etc., they still return as good as new products to be used.

Regulations Relating Soiled Linens:

As per OSHA, many hospitals believe that the soiled linens may not be favorable to be used againand must be discarded in designated red bags in accordance with OSHA’s Blood-borne Pathogens (BBP) Standard.

However, the description of ‘regulated medical wastes’ does not contain smeared linens which could be washed and reused.

Thus, soiled and contaminated may not totally be considered medical wastes, unless they are associated with some really grave contaminants.

And all due to this, just as you consult the local authorities pertaining to sharps waste management in Richmond VA for sharps disposal, healthcare linens would rarely require such assistance.

How To Ensure Proper Handling Of Linens:

Though you do not throw most of these, every time you use them, it is necessary to ensure appropriate carefulness. Linens that are smeared with blood and other contaminants should be handled very carefully.

The personnel who handle these should have proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) so that their skin and other body parts could be prevented from exposure to the contaminants.

Also, the linens should be washed really very carefully with friendly chemicals to suppress the original contaminants and blood etc. and turn it absolutely safe for reuse.

And for those which cannot be used again, you have hoards of waste management agencies to assist you.

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