Throw it on the floor?! - Page 6

well that's sanitary

"No day but today"

Actually, it's fairly common practice in Australia and the UK.
http://www.cnwl.nhs.uk/.../Managemen...y%20Policy.doc

The linen bins have seperate lids on them and if someone is known to have an infection like MRSA or C.diff we have a seperate bin that goes next to their bed that has a dissolvable bag in an inpermiable bag so the laundry staff only have to remove the dissolvable bag and then place it in the machine on a foul wash.

We put the skip just inside the curtains if it's a shared room and just within arms reach if it's a private room. The linen goes straight into the appropriate coloured bag, with any pads or used cloths going straight into a white plastic bag which then goes into a covered bin that has a thick black garbage bag in it. These are then emptied a couple of times a shift, depending on how full they are. Anything with body fluids on it goes in a seperate skip and is taken to the laundry once 2/3 full.

It is very sanitary. The bins are not kept full to overflowing, and soiled linen is tied immediately and taken to the dirty linen room, so all that is in the bin, if anything, is reasonably clean linen from stripping discharged beds or when we change all the beds in the AM. Infectious patients get their very own bags which are disposed of straight away.

I think it's a great deal more sanitary then chucking linens on the floor, or, worse and that I had to correct someone last week, the soiled brief on the bedside table where the patient eats!

Roll of small trashbags with me at all times. That said, I STILL throw the trashbag on the floor- sometimes there is just no helping it.