Author: Isehani Majmudo
Medical waste is greatly increasing every year, and their implications are not mild. Medical waste is a wide term used to describe the waste products generated in medical care facilities and includes everything that goes from the elimination of small needles to the energy consumption of radiological scanning. Reducing waste can save money for practices and operations rooms, and benefit the environment.
The amplitude of the services provided by modern medicine is deep. Innovative surgeries, novel pharmaceutical products and avant -garde technology are just some of the driving forces that help the provision of exceptional care to patients in all specialties. However, these advances come with a cost, both financial and environmental. Duration COVID-19 pandemic, gravitated medical care facilities towards disposable medical products to minimize infection transmission. A 2022 review document reports that total biomedical waste in the United States during the pandemic were more than 16,000 tons per day.1
Unfortunately, the use of disposable persists long after Covid-19 has decreased. Excess medical waste exists within all specialties, thought that the degree of the problem varies. In my field of interest, ophthalmology, unnecessary medical waste sources include single -use eyes, large surgical curtains in the operating room, unnecessary use or surgeries of anesthetic gas duration and surgery of a single user. Organizations such as Eyesustain and My Green Doctor are educating doctors and practice managers on ways of reducing medical waste and are promotion research on this subject.
My personal defense project is the problem of single -use eye drops. This example typifies the medical waste crisis of our industry and highlights some of the challenges we face and some have tangible solutions.
Dilated and anesthetic eye drops are routinely offered to patients in most ophthalmology clinics. The standard of care worldwide in clinics is to use bottles of mulidosis in the drop of eyes, which means that the eye drops of a bottle are administered to several patients. However, in the operating room, the practice has evolved to rule out Eyedrop bottles after only one use. The justification of this practice is to minimize cross pollution in a stellar environment, he thought there is little investigation to support this statement.2
The arguments are solid to choose Multius Eyedbops in operating rooms. A 2010 research study found that treating two patients per bottle instead would decrease plastic waste by approximately 12.69 tons in the United Kingdom every year.2 Beyond that, hundreds of thousands of dollars are wasted each year due to unused pharmaceutical products; Multius falls could save every large hospital in the United States or upward or $ 240,000 for 5 years.3
“Each United States hospital could save $ 240,000 per year.”
The Aravind ocular care system is a network of sophisticated hospitals and eye clinics in India. A study at its Pondicherry hospital evaluated the security of the use of multidosis fall bottles. The video recordings were tasks since the suppliers administered drops of perioperative routine to the patients and the tips of the Eyedrop bottles were grown to evaluate microbial growth. The results of this study showed that multidosis drops are a safe and plausible alternative to individual dose dose bottles. In addition, it was found that reported postoperative infection rates in Aravind were lower than rates in the United States, which used dose policy. 4
Changing Multius bottles will be a challenge. The unique use has become the custom for most doctors and managers, and has certainly benefited manufacturers generously. The use of medicines in the operating rooms of the United States is regulated by individual states; Changing multiple doses drops will require an administrative and legislative defense for eyes specialists in each state and country. In 2022, the American Academy of Ophthalmology created a legislative template for the “Topical Medical Waste Reduction Law” that would allow multiple bottles for the administration of the ocular fall in ophthalmic surgery. This template is based on a 2021 law in Illinois that allowed patients to take home any medication to dolery that the patient was used if the patient needed it for postoperative care. Doctors and medical professional societies can use this template to help implement a very necessary change.
There are other steps that doctors can in their practices and hospitals. First, start asking questions and encourage conversations about what you and your team can do so that your daily activities are more sustainable with the environment. One way to start is to ask its practice manager to take advantage of free resources in Eyesustain and my green doctor.
Once you have begun to adopt sustainable practices worked in your own clinic, consider working within your professional societies to work for change. Product manufacturers and suppliers must also be active partners. The unity of many key interests and stakeholders will be what creates load impacts!
The eye drops of a single use in ophthalmology operations rooms are just an example of the waste crisis in medical care. Concerned eyes specialists have put sleeves to study health, financial and environmental implications, and have found creative medical and legislative solutions. Let this be your call to action!
References:
- NGOC SV, NGUNY MA, NGUNY TL, THI HV, DAO TL, BUI TMP, HOANG VT, CHU DT. COVID-19 and ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH: A systematic analysis for the global load of biomedical waste through this epidemic. Case Stud Chem Environment Eng. 2022 Dec; 6: 100245. DOI: 10.1016/J.CSCEE.2022.100245. EPUB 2022 August 10. PMID: 37520922; PMCID: PMC9364663.
- Somner, J., Cavanagh, D., Wong, K. et al. The precautionary principle: What is the risk of reusing disposable falls in routine ophthalmology consultations and what are the costs of reducing this risk to zero? Eye 24361–363 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/eye.2009.129
- Berkowitz, ST, Finn, A., Sternberg, P., JR and Patel, S. (2022). Savings of potential costs associated with an Multius preoperative and pre -registered Eyedrop protocol. Ophthalmology” 129(11), 1305–1312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2022.06.023
- WU, AM, Kumar, P., Stein, JD, Venkatesh, R., Zhou, Y. and Robin, at (2021). An evaluation in the administration of Eyedrop by ophthalmic technicians. Ophthalmology” 128(5), 796–798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ophtha.2020.09.029
About the author
Isehani Majmudar is a collaborating editor of my green doctor. She graduated from Northwestern University and is a 4Th Year of Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Feinberg at the Northwestern University in Chicago. Your email address is [email protected].
Recognition: Thanks to Dr. David J. Palmer, MD, for his support and leadership on this subject.
