| MUSC
team helps healthcare sites reduce waste
Toss-it-and-forget-it doesn't work for hospitals where waste is pollution and pollution is a ghost to sully reputations and haunt financial bottom lines. That's the message MUSC's University Risk Management Office has carried to 101 health care sites throughout South Carolina. And that's the message 76 of those facilities have accepted by inviting Risk Management director Wayne Brannan and his team to show them how to prevent pollution and reduce waste management costs. Two years ago, Brannan's office was granted $47,500 to “identify pollution prevention opportunities within South Carolina health care facilities.” The project is part of the joint university statewide technical assistance program, funded by the state's hazardous waste management research fund. “There's not a health care facility in South Carolina that doesn't have an opportunity to reduce the waste they generate,” Brannan said. “Even here (MUSC).” He said that even if they are in full compliance with state and federal waste management and pollution control laws, facilities may still be needlessly polluting the environment. The overuse of hazardous substances and incomplete segregation of waste streams attributes to this result. Examples of health care facility departments which create hazardous waste include, but are not limited to, radiology, oncology, laboratories, and facility maintenance. Brannan said that with this project “researchers are able to examine processes throughout facility departments in order to identify possible alternative technologies to reduce pollutants and/or discuss non-hazardous substitutions for chemicals currently in use.” The assessments have been completed for the 76 participating health care organizations within the state. The research team has produced and returned individualized survey reports containing pollution prevention techniques. A statewide hospital waste database has also been created. The team will continue to evaluate the processes of the participating hospitals, and will provide technical assistance in the implementation of pollution prevention technologies. MUSC has focused its attention on pollution prevention and waste minimization for the past 10 to 15 years and has compiled a wealth of knowledge about the processes involved. It's that knowledge and experience that Brannan and his team carry to health care facilities throughout the state. “We are an unbiased, non-regulatory state organization staffed by experienced personnel offering a free service that is strictly confidential,” Brannan said. “And it's cost effective. It could even help the bottom line.” The joint university statewide technical assistance program is supported by the Hazardous Waste Management research fund. The fund supports research education and other activities that contribute to the reduction of hazardous waste generated, treated, stored and disposed of in South Carolina. Established by the General Assembly in 1989 as part of the South Carolina Universities Research and Education Foundation, the fund serves as a comprehensive research program to improve current hazardous waste management practices with particular emphasis on waste minimization and reduction and the development of more effective and efficient methods of conducting governmental response actions at abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites. |