Why Medical Sharps Container is Necessary for Home Patient Care?

Sometimes, patients are unable to stay in the hospitals for long for which the option left is of home care services. The home care service includes doctor care, nursing care, physical, occupational, speech-language therapy, and more. This home treatment generates medical sharps like syringes, needles, lancets, broken glasses and other medical waste that can pierce the skin and be harmful in other severe ways too. These waste materials are infectious in nature and can be a reason for several diseases too. This is what calls for the proper handling and disposal of these sharps. Let’s discuss how and why medical sharps container is necessary during home patient care!

To understand the need for a medical sharps container, let’s first acknowledge how harmful these sharps can be:

Different types of sharp wastes that infectious by nature and can harm you are:

1. Syringes: The used syringe, including, needle, barrel, protective cover, and the shaft is infectious by nature. It might carry blood or viruses the patients are infected with. It can pinch the skin or can transmit the disease from the patient to others including family members. If you shove these sharps into the regular dustbin. It can also harm the trash picker. That’s why the handling and disposal of this waste should be done separately.
2. Lancet: Lancets are the edge surgical instruments used to make small incisions. Due to sharp edges, it can harm the skin or can spread infections from the body of the patient to others. This is what calls for special care to handle and dispose of these sharps. Remember that you should never put them in the regular trash.
3. Broken Glass: The small glass vessel that contains a liquid dose known as vial. This liquid dose contained in vial injected into the patient’s veins through a vaccine. During the home treatment, the broken parts of vial make the 70% parts of the sharp medical waste. Due to the abstruse size of these particles, handling is slightly difficult and requires more care.

How to Handle These Medical Sharps?

People who take injection on regular bases should have medical sharps container in their house. The medical waste including, needles or lancets should go into the sharps containers. These containers are usually made with hard and thick plastic, and slightly difficult to open to keep children and pets safe. During home treatment, you should put all these medical sharps in this container regularly. Once it gets fully filled with sharps, seal it and place in the centre of regular trash. Be sure, the trash in which you are keeping the sharps should not be recyclable. Putting the sharps in the recyclable trash can harm someone. Also, don’t forget to label the sharps container with the text "SHARPS".

In Conclusion:

Finally, everyone who is taking home patient care services should have medical sharps container in their house. It will keep them safe from infectious and harmful sharps. The handling of this waste needs more care. These special containers can help in doing this task more efficiently. On the other hand, electric container services are also available in the market that can crush or sanitize these sharps. After crushing and sanitization, handling can be easier.