The president of Regional Health Rapid City (S.D.) Hospital said the hospital is taking additional steps to ensure its medical waste is being disposed of properly after city officials alleged last week the institution has continued to dump medical waste into the city's landfill, according to The Rapid City Journal.
Paulette Davidson, president and COO of Regional Health Rapid City Hospital and Rapid City Market, posted a video May 4 to Rapid City-based Regional Health's Facebook page discussing the hospital's medical waste disposal policies.
"We continue to work with the City of Rapid City and the Rapid City landfill on ways to improve the disposal of medical waste," Ms. Davidson said in an accompanying statement. "From January 2017 to March 2018, Rapid City Hospital delivered approximately 285,000 waste bags to the landfill. Of this total, only 254 bags (or less than one-tenth of 1 percent) were incorrectly disposed and those bags were retrieved and removed from the landfill immediately."
Ms. Davidson noted that while "99.9 percent" of the hospital's medical waste is disposed of properly, she knows the hospital "can do better, and we will remain committed to the environment [and] ... address this important issue."
The Facebook video and statement come roughly one week after city officials publicly claimed the hospital has continued to dump medical waste in the city's landfill despite repeated warnings and fines, including throughout the past year.
Ms. Davidson said surveyors from the South Dakota Department of Health, on request from CMS, made an "unannounced and unscheduled" visit to the hospital last week and "applauded" the institution on surpassing the expectations it outlined in its corrective action plan during administrators' last visit roughly one year ago, according to the report.
DOH surveyors visited the hospital on April 25, 2017, and April 26, 2017, and noted the hospital improperly collected medical waste and deposited it in the city's landfill through a private trash hauler, the report states. On April 27, 2017, the hospital provided regulators with a corrective action plan to address its safety violations.
CMS stated the hospital was placed in good standing following the implementation of its corrective action plan, according to a June 2017 letter from CMS to the hospital obtained by The Rapid City Journal.
To access the full report, click here.