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Solutions

Achieving regulatory compliance by accurately identifying and disposing of pharmaceutical waste is an ever-increasing problem.

With nurses handling as many as two hundred medications per day, and single hospital facilities disposing upwards of one million drugs and containers per year, proper placement of hazardous pharmaceutical materials is a daunting task.

As a result, meeting stringent state and federal regulatory guidelines is becoming more and more difficult causing closer governmental scrutiny and an upswing in fines. The environment also suffers as improperly dispensed waste enters the world’s waterways causing consumer concerns.

A five-month investigation completed by the Associated Press in March 2008 confirmed that a vast array of pharmaceutical drugs are present in the drinking water of 41 million Americans and in 24 major metropolitan areas. This report triggered increased awareness and scrutiny of pharmaceutical contaminants in the country’s water supply, including congressional hearings and state-level testing initiatives. A second Associated Press investigation, reported in September 2008, found that hospitals and long-term care facilities are contributing to the United States’ contaminated drinking water by dumping 250 million pounds of drug waste annually.

In 2009, the EPA will be collecting information from hospitals, through mandatory questionnaires, about the disposal of unused pharmaceuticals to better understand current management practices and the magnitude of discharges to waters. This questionnaire requires a signature by a C-suite level executive.

EcoRex, a fully automated, integrated system from Vestara, greatly improves pharmaceutical waste management processes and controls. And will beneficially impact any hospital’s bottom line.

EcoRex answers the critical need for safe and simple waste removal. Specifically designed to free hospital and pharmacy staff from human error, EcoRex accurately identifies and classifies all types of pharmaceutical waste, then captures identified hazardous waste, lower risk waste, CIII-CV controlled substances, and aerosols into the proper stream for disposal.

EcoRex provides the effective solution to help pharmaceutical-handling facilities around the world meet or exceed regulatory compliance performance and environmental protection efforts, positively impacting administration costs and public opinion.