Sharps bins contain dangerous items, as those suffering the shock and trauma, and possibly the consequences of a sharps injury will attest. But sometimes, we manage to make it worse, placing sharps bins in locations where incidents are more likely to occur.
Putting a sharps bin into a wall mounted bracket, or at the back of a workbench should be rather standard; perhaps even on a window ledge if you must. The key issues are, that the sharps bin must be of a suitable size AND shape, that it must meet BS ISO standard certification, that it must be correctly assembled, and located in a position close to where sharps are used to facilitate prompt disposal before sharps are ‘lost’. The bin must be properly colour coded to indicate its intended use – purple for cytotoxics etc, with up-regulation in preference to an array of different colour coded bins for different types of sharps.
Other location issues must be considered. It is well know that children find sharps bins attractive and fascinating, and those which might be placed in an accessible location, too close to a bed or cot, or on the floor of a consulting or treatment room, may be a target for little hands. Reaching inside, a sharps injury is almost inevitable and far too many such incidents have been reported, from hospitals, clinics and GP surgeries. Every one of those should have been prevented with a little forethought and common sense.
Regrettably, another such incident is reported, this time from a hospital in Saskatchewan. In this case, a 19-month-old child squealed in delight when she discovered the yellow hazardous-waste bucket in the emergency room at the hospital in Outlook, south of Saskatoon, last Friday. This is just one of several we have reported on the Clinical Waste Discussion Forum.
Mum was busy talking with a nurse, who was examining one of her older children. When the toddler shrieked, they all looked down and noticed that she had reached in the sharps bin, which was sitting on the bottom of a cart near the bed, and pulled out her hands while clutching a dirty needle.
The onus must be on those who use sharps bins in the clinical area to position these with care and forethought. The suppliers in the manufacturing and disposal sectors, can help. The supply of wall brackets would help immensely, as might an additional warning note of the label, to warn users to avoid putting the bin within the reach of children. A better temporary closure would help and please, one that doesn’t risk injury to users when engaging or disengaging that closure would be very welcome.