Ostomy bag disposal

Nurses General Nursing

Published

*I work in a prison setting that has in patient and general population units. We have inmates that utilized different types of ostomy bags and am wondering what is the correct disposal of the bags. Our infection control department is giving conflicting answers. Also what is the disposal of adult diapers. Thank you

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Biohazard, Baby!

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, Cardiac ICU.

We've always been told that if it is body fluid and it can drip, put it in the biohazard bag.

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We bag our briefs and ostomy bags and place in the dumpster. If blood is noted then they go to the biohazard. Also if someone is in isolation ie. C-Diff it would go in the biohazard.This is standard for our statr reg.s

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Depends on you state regs. If state regs say dispose of as bio-hazard waste then it must be red bagged. If state regs make no mention then OSHA regs are followed - dispose of as bio-hazard waste if visible and/or dripping blood seen with the naked eye. We do not red bag this stuff unless grossly bloody.

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