Team Information
Denise Donnelly, denise.donnelly@cuanschutz.edu
Nancy Hostetler, Safety, Regulatory and training Specialist
What
Department of Environmental Health & Safety, Biosafety Division (EHS) and Facility Management identified a serious safety and public health issue on the CU Anschutz Medical campus. There was no safe way to dispose of sharps-needles. There are 325 restrooms located throughout the campus buildings and this was the most obvious place to install a sharps container using a lockable, wall mounted holder.
Facility Management has been responsible for the purchase and installation of these units and EHS is responsible for the replacement and proper disposal of the sharps container when it becomes full. To date, EHS has removed and disposed of 5 full sharps containers which is an estimated 300 to 400 sharps-needles that have been kept out of the restroom trash receptacles. This is an efficient way of creating a safe environment for the Vendor janitorial staff and our campus community.
Why
CU Anschutz Medical Campus has more than 25K faculty, staff, and students on campus and a countless number of vendors and the public visiting our campus every day. Many of these people have health needs that require them to use a prescribed injectable drug and a safe way to dispose of it using one of the sharps containers located throughout the restrooms on campus.
When
The program was initiated in October 2016 and there are now 75 restrooms that have a secured, wall mounted sharps container available for use. EHS has committed funding to purchase the remaining 250 sharps container units and hopes to have them installed during FY 2020 and FY 2021. Discussions are underway with Facility Management to provide the resources to install these units.
