Physician Practice

The lab and the Pharmaceutical Rule: Do they go together?

Medical Environment Update, October 19, 2019

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EDITOR’S NOTE: In this guest column, Dan Scungio, MT(ASCP), SLS, laboratory safety officer for Sentara Healthcare, a multihospital system in Virginia, and otherwise known as “Dan, the Lab Safety Man,” discusses the important issues that affect your job every day.

Many laboratorians may not have noticed, but in February of this year, the EPA published the Management Standards for Hazardous Waste Pharmaceuticals and Amendment to the P075 Listing for Nicotine, better known as the “Pharmaceutical Rule.” The updates created by these new laws affect pharmacies and how they handle hazardous waste, but they do not affect laboratories directly. However, the new regulations can significantly help to reduce the total waste volumes of a clinic or a hospital, which can in turn change the waste generator status of that facility, which will have a direct impact on lab waste management operations—so it is important to understand all the pieces of the Pharmaceutical Rule.

This is an excerpt from a member only article. To read the article in its entirety, please login or subscribe to Medical Environment Update.

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