Hospital Worker Fired Over Disposal of Medical Waste

Tri-City Medical Center officials said Tuesday that they have dismissed an employee who apparently was responsible for improperly disposing bags of infectious medical waste into a regular trash bin, which later surfaced at a North County landfill.

Since the potentially dangerous waste--including tissues such as placentas, surgical instruments and materials from hospital rooms where infectious patients were isolated--was discovered at the San Marcos dump Oct. 27, hospital and county health officials have been trying to determine how the debris got there.

Tri-City Medical Center spokeswoman Jennifer Velez said a worker employed with the hospital’s environmental services department failed to place the medical waste in its designated bin and, instead, incorrectly dumped the contents into a regular trash bin.

“Basically it appears that this person did not follow hospital procedure” for medical-waste disposal, Velez said. “At this point, all I can say is that this person is no longer with us. The employee was dismissed by the hospital, but not solely because of this incident.” She declined to say when the employee was fired.

Velez would not say whether the worker had committed other infractions. She also declined to comment on the employee’s experience, but said the worker had been educated about medical-waste disposal procedures.

“At this particular time it is our conclusion that no one else was involved,” Velez said. “We believe this was an isolated incident and that it has never occurred before in our facility. But our investigation has not concluded. We are still fully cooperating with the county task force. It is our goal that this is the last time this ever happens.”

The San Diego County Hazardous Waste Task Force, composed of representatives from many state and local regulatory and law enforcement agencies, is also trying to determine if hospital employees illegally disposed of the infectious debris.

“Our investigation is still ongoing,” said Linda Miller, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office. The district attorney is a member of the task force investigating the case.

“There could be more to this than hospital administrators are aware of,” Miller said. “We still don’t know who knows what, how many times this has happened . . . and until we gather all the information we won’t be able to determine whether charges will be filed.”

Miller could not say when the task force’s investigation will be completed.

If charges are filed, it will mark the first time in San Diego County that a hospital has been penalized for violating standards regulating disposal of infectious medical waste. Laws require that facilities handling more than 220 pounds of medical waste a month incinerate the waste into ash or expose it to steam.

Standard hospital procedure requires that medical waste be placed in doubled red bags, which are then tied shut and placed into 55-gallon durable plastic containers that are stored in locked bins, Velez said. The worker responsible for collecting such waste must present the materials to a supervisor--the only person who has a key to the locked bins.

Regular trash, however, is disposed of in unlocked bins and is not under supervision, she said.

“From now on, as a result of this incident, our regular trash bins will also be locked and a supervisor will check the garbage,” Velez said. In addition, all hospital employees will be informed about waste-removal procedures, she said.

Hospital officials believe the 12 to 14 bags of medical waste dumped into the regular trash bin were hauled to the San Marcos landfill by Oceanside Disposal.

“Our policy is, if there is a red bag, don’t pick it up,” said Desi Reno, a division controller at Oceanside Disposal. The solid-waste removal firm is contracted by Tri-City Medical Center. “All our employees are instructed of that policy,” he said.

Reno said the company’s trash haulers would not have been able to see the red bags in the regular trash pile.

Compactor Transports Trash

“The trash at Tri-City Medical Center is picked up by a compactor,” Reno said. “Unlike a front-loader, which lifts a bin and dumps its contents into a truck, compactors take the trash bins directly to the landfill. Since compactors don’t dump until they’re at the landfill, our workers would not have seen the red bags.”

Witnesses at the San Marcos landfill reported that some of the bags were leaking onto the ground and others were ripped, their contents mixed with regular garbage.

It is still unknown whether the medical waste was dangerous, but Velez said that is unlikely.

“We’re still investigating that issue,” Velez said. “But, to the best of our knowledge, no one was in danger, nor did the materials pose a threat to the environment.”

The appearance of medical waste at the San Marcos dump comes shortly after a vial of blood, a syringe and other items washed ashore in La Jolla on Oct. 29. Although a hospital name tag found amid the debris was traced to Tri-City Medical Center, investigators have not been able to determine the source of the remaining medical waste.