Business Technology

A Treasure Trove in Trash

Environmental services professionals may not associate business technology with trash, but that could be a huge mistake, according to one medical organization. The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics housekeeping department, Iowa City, Iowa, has been using a special hand-held computer system to monitor unnecessary medical waste disposals — often staff, patients or visitors will place non-medical waste into red bag containers, which are much more expensive to dispose of.

The system, Waste Tracker™, from Walsh Integrated Environmental Systems Inc., Montreal, uses a handheld computer with a digital camera to take pictures of red-bag trash contents. If some things don’t belong, the program will note which items were misplaced and generate an e-mail to the manager of that department with details of the problem and how to solve it. The program also builds a database able to create reports for Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or other compliance requirements.

The University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics has used the system for the last five years, reducing its annual hazardous waste load by about 50 percent, says Marty Shafer operations director of housekeeping for the facilities.

"It’s extremely cutting-edge technology that is very useful in reducing costs and safety concerns within our department and for the entire hospital and clinical system," he says.

The current version of the system also provides employee training for all staff, not just housekeeping, regarding waste management, support materials and on-site consulting. And while the system can cost an average of $70,000 for small hospitals up to $200,000 for large hospitals, Walsh sells the program on a shared savings basis because of the fairly common, quick return on investment, says president Stephen Walsh.

The company’s Web site estimates that red-bag waste can cost as much as 20 to 50 cents per pound to dispose of, while regular trash only costs about 1 to 5 cents for disposal. At that rate, Walsh reports that many customers have saved upwards of 50 percent on waste disposal costs just due to better tracking and regular reminders to hospital staff.

For more information regarding this program or Walsh’s other operations management systems and consulting, call 800-925-7460.

If you’re looking for some new budgeting benchmarks to work with, you’re in luck. Facility managers and housekeeping directors now can purchase the 1999-2000 Educational Facility Comparative Cost and Staffing Report from the Association of Higher Education Facility Officers (APPA) on CD-ROM.

The CD includes charts, graphs and reports that now include comparisons with K-12 schools as well as colleges and universities. The format is in text and Microsoft Access database format so facility managers can review individual records by institution, read or print any or all of the prepared reports, or copy reports into their own organizations’ spreadsheets or computerized benchmarking data. Also included is the ability to compare current data with previous CCAS reports and a peer-to-peer comparison function.

The CD is $130 for members and $210 for nonmembers. If a facility manager can’t use CDs then there is a 291-page paper report available for $25 for members and $40 for nonmembers. APPA also is giving a discount to anyone who purchases both the CD-ROM and the paper version as a package.

To order the new report visit their site or call 703-684-1446.

Housekeeping managers now have a new online resource. Ergoweb-L is the world’s largest email discussion list concerning workplace ergonomics. It serves thousands of subscribers internationally from laypeople to issue experts. Subscribers can participate by sending noncommercial announcements, questions or answers via email.

Ergoweb-L is a moderated list meaning someone looks at all messages to determine if the information should be distributed. The two primary reasons for rejecting a message are either message formatting problems or message content problems — advertisements for products or companies are rejected to reduce spamming.

Ergoweb.com, the host of ergoweb-L, also offers the latest news on ergonomics. It has a software solutions section, which offers office assessment and training software, and industrial analysis software and computer based ergonomic training. It has training services, which include corporate on-site training, and applied workplace training courses. Ergoweb consulting services also offers corporate and small-business packages.

Finally the Web site offers a buyers guide users can search to find almost any ergonomics products and services. To subscribe.