ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE

When state officials audited Orange County’s oversight of the disposal of medical waste last year, they ranked the program the worst of the six they inspected across California. Things were so bad the state threatened a takeover.

The threat seems to have gotten the county’s attention. State officials now say the program has been improved sufficiently that the county will keep operating it. But the state still sees room for improvement and will monitor the progress. That is encouraging.

One inspector said after the original audit that he did not think the county’s lapses indicated a threat to public health. The reason was that hospitals and other generators of large amounts of syringes, dirty hospital gowns, empty drug vials and the like were conscientious about disposing of their waste properly.

But it was troubling to learn that the state found the county had only one person assigned to the medical waste management program, which oversees more than 200 facilities. Worse, that worker had other, unrelated duties as well. As a result, 80% of the generators of large amounts of waste, such as hospitals and medical labs, had not been inspected by the county.

One reason for the problems was the county Health Care Agency’s loss of money and personnel after the bankruptcy. Still, more medical waste inspectors have been added since the state audit. That was overdue.

The county needs sufficient personnel to inspect hospitals and laboratories and see to it that trash bins are dumped before they overflow, that warnings on how to dispose of materials are posted and that the other components of medical waste disposal are in place. Orange County may have escaped public health problems so far, but those charged with safeguarding residents’ welfare need to remind medical professionals of the potential threat to the public.