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Hospital won't confirm origin of illegal waste.
Employees of St. Vincent Regional Medical Center's operating rooms and birthing suites may need additional training in the aftermath of the hospital's most recent violation of rules governing infectious waste disposal.
The Santa Fe New Mexican reported on Aug. 10 that an entire load of hospital garbage was turned away due to some blood-soaked items aren't allowed at the Caja del Rio landfill.
SFR has learned the likely origins of some of that bloody garbage.
"One of the guys said this came from the OR,"? Randall Kippenbrock, executive director of the Santa Fe Solid Waste Management Agency, tells SFR, referring to one of the three hospital employees who were immediately dispatched to inspect the suspect load of trash on Aug. 8.
***image2***Kippenbrock, who manages the landfill, adds that "in the middle of the load there was a lot of baby magazines and infant milk containers,"? suggesting a second possible origin of the illegal medical waste.
According to Kippenbrock, the same hospital employees said much of the waste could be tracked to the specific shift, even the specific hospital room.
The waste included six small blood-soaked items, including a small piece of gauze, a latex glove and a few hospital garments.
"All of those six items could fit into a 44-ounce drink cup,"? he adds.
Hospital spokesman Arturo Delgado would not confirm the origins of the offending waste. But he does acknowledge that the hospital workers, who sorted through the waste wearing full-body biohazard suits, were able to chase down much of it.
"That can be tracked and the idea is to continue the educational efforts with those employees,"? Delgado says. "We have an entire department that does that."?
Like previous infractions, the state Environment Department considers the matter a "serious violation"? and promises a stiff penalty. Last October, St. Vincent's was cited five times for improper disposal of medical waste - syringes, bloody tubing and gauze- spotted during a routine landfill inspection. At the time, an Environment Department spokesperson said fines could exceed $100,000.
That fine could climb even higher given the repeat offenses, according to E Gifford Stack, a manager with the department's Solid Waste Bureau.
"Blood from hospitals could pose hazards and contain pathogens that could lead to infectious diseases such as AIDS and Hepatitis B or C,"? Stack says. Yet, he mostly agrees with Kippenbrock's assessment that the danger posed by the most recent infraction is minimal.
"You use the words "'infectious waste' and people can get really alarmed,"? Kippenbrock says, adding that he's seen much more serious waste disposal violations when he worked at a landfill near Laredo, Texas. Large volumes of acetone were illegally dumped and, in a separate incident, pressurized sulfur ignited and the flames spread across the landfill.
Both Stack and Kippenbrock also note that medical waste coming from hospitals is strictly regulated, while identical waste coming from trash cans at home isn't.
"The EPA has said that generators like that have such a volume and also have the ability to control that volume. That's different than a bloody Band-Aid that I might have at my house,"? Stack says.
St. Vincent's Deldago, a Type 2 diabetic, knows from personal experience that the proper disposal of household medical waste is "my responsibility as a diabetic who uses needles on a regular basis."? He says the hospital doesn't chafe at the higher standards it must meet.
"We don't have an issue with that at all."?
