Regulations and laws

[AREED12]

I would like to know what the laws and regulations are (for Washington state) on donating "used" items.

I know that it is against safety sanitation precautions to take supplies from one pt to another, and that some of these unused items can be donated to missionary/out of the states causes. But wound vac supplies do not go as there usually are not wound vacs or electricity for these supplies. And the wound vac supplies although still in origonal packing can't be given to another client. But what about donating them to a school lab? What are laws and regulations on this? I can not find anything in print that has what can and can't be donated and where these thing can and can't be donated to.

thanks for any help or explanations you can provide.

[KelRN215, BSN, RN]

I highly doubt there are any laws about this. Can you see the state legislature sitting down and writing a law about whether or not used medical supplies can be donated? No, me neither. That's how laws are made. The hospital's policies would be what dictates this. When I worked in the hospital, unopened items were returned to the clean supply room if it wasn't a precautions room. All supplies were discarded from precautions rooms.

[brownbook]

I don't know. You can enter donating medical supplies into the search box (top right on screen) on Allnurses, maybe get some ideas?

I have heard of some of the companies that supply medical devices, equipment, etc., accepting these items back from hospitals and donating them, but this is a long ago vague "rumor" I heard.

I hate the waste we see every day in our hospitals knowing some items we throw away are perfectly good, knowing there are improvished countries that could use them, or animal hospitals, or even just local nursing school for practice or demonstrations.