St. Vincent faces fine for waste problems

$55,800 penalty for sending 'potentially infectious material' to landfill

Sue Vorenberg | The New Mexican

5/15/2008 - 5/16/08

The state Environment Department has ordered St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to pay a $55,800 penalty for disposing of infectious medical waste at the local landfill last summer.

Apparently, though, the size of that waste is in the eye of the beholder.

The department says the hospital violated state solid waste regulations when it brought three truckloads of medical waste to the Caja del Rio Landfill in August 2007.

Included in one shipment were "used syringes, plastic tubing, gauze, blue-colored hospital bedding, pads and latex gloves that were contaminated, saturated or caking with blood or bloody liquids," according to the department's administrative order.

Another had, among other things, "a hospital diaper with apparent feces and visible blood or other potentially infectious material, plastic pipettes and several clear plastic bags labeled with the bio-hazard symbol," according to the order.

The shipments happened Aug. 8, 10 and 17, and in each case, St. Vincent dispatched a cleanup team from Stericycle Inc. to contain and remove the waste.

In the first instance, Stericycle removed 50 44-gallon rigid containers of material deemed infectious waste from the landfill. In the second instance, the company removed 150 44-gallon rigid containers of material deemed infectious waste, and in the third instance the company removed 33 44-gallon rigid containers of material deemed infectious waste, according to the administrative order.

Arturo Delgado, a spokesman for St. Vincent, said in each case the waste was a "small amount," and the hospital "takes these issues very seriously."

Most likely, the waste ended up in the wrong trash bin, he said.

"As a medical facility, we do generate a lot of waste," Delgado said, adding the waste was probably "Band-Aids or other things that people may have brought to the cafeteria and thrown out in the wrong place."

The hospital was charged with five violations. The violations are unauthorized disposal of infectious waste, failure to segregate infectious waste, failure to contain infectious waste in proper plastic bags inside rigid containers, failure to label containers of infectious waste and failure to manifest special waste.

"Solid waste regulations are intended to protect residents and landfill workers from the effects of potentially harmful materials," New Mexico Environment Secretary Ron Curry said in a news statement. "St. Vincent violated those regulations by allowing infectious waste to slip past the appropriate checks at the hospital."

Prior to the August 2007 incidents, the department had issued a notice of violation to the hospital because of issues in 2006, including the disposal of 14 truckloads containing similarly regulated medical wastes at the landfill.

The hospital complied with that notice, revised management plans and added inspection procedures to segregate infectious waste from regular trash.

St. Vincent has 30 days to respond, either by paying the fine or talking to officials, said Marissa Stone, a spokeswoman for the Environment Department.

Delgado said the hospital plans to meet with the department "to see how best to proceed and what our options are."

Contact Sue Vorenberg at 986-3072 or svorenberg@sfnewmexican.com.