HIPAA News

Palo Alto Health System of Veterans Affairs Goes Green.

Sanitec Industries, Inc. (www.sanitecindustries.com) won a major medical waste treatment contract from the US Dept. of Veterans Affairs. The five year contract covers the VA’s Palo Alto Health Care System (VAPAHCS) consisting of three inpatient facilities located at Palo Alto, Menlo Park, and Livermore plus six outpatient clinics in San Jose, Capitola, Monterey, Stockton, Modesto, and Sonora.

“We are honored to begin providing environmentally friendly medical waste treatment and disposal services for the Department of Veterans Affairs’ Palo Alto Health Care System,” said Jim Harkess. “In addition to helping the government to reduce its environmental impact in California, the Sanitec system is HIPAA compliant, rendering patient information on medical supplies unrecognizable,” Harkess said.

The VA account marks the latest in a series of major contracts in California for the privately held microwave medical waste treatment and disposal firm. In California, Sanitec Industries provides competitively priced services for medical waste generators ranging from large centers including USC, Good Samaritan and Providence Health System to hundreds of smaller medical facilities.

“Sanitec Industries’ growth in California has come from our team’s unrelenting focus on customer service and a comparably priced, environmentally friendly alternative to autoclaves that also delivers HIPAA compliant patient privacy protection,” said Harkess. Autoclaves, by comparison, heat waste, but does not destroy it, leaving intact highly personal information on IV bags, ID bracelets, prescription bottles, and financial documents.

The Sanitec system is zero-emission and reduces the volume of medical waste by up to 80 percent less, which means less impact on municipal landfills and far fewer waste-hauling tractor trailers on California roads. Sanitec’s truck-based mobile and fixed units, which are about the size of a shipping container, are fully automated, self-contained and are approved for use in all 50 states and DC.

The vast majority of medical waste in California is processed by autoclaves either on site at hospitals or at remote facilities. Increasingly, environmental experts and scientists are calling into question the effectiveness of autoclaves. According to these experts, most medical waste must remain in an autoclave for at least two hours to be safely disinfected. Yet many operators only treat waste for a fraction of this time; while saving money and increasing throughput, this short-cut fails to eliminate dangerous bacteria and viruses. Autoclaves operating at high temperatures can also create dangerous byproducts including mercury.

Sanitec Industries is certified in California to handle most types of medical waste including bio-hazardous waste, trace chemo, and pathology waste. Sanitec has also been approved for processing of bird carcasses in the event of an H5N1 or similar outbreak, the Sanitec system has also passed Anthrax containment tests.

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