[Pharmwaste] Collection results & Improved pharm waste inventory sheet available.

Ed Gottlieb egottlieb at cityofithaca.org
Fri Apr 15 10:03:41 EDT 2011


Here are the results of our third collection event in Tompkins County,
NY, held on April 9th, 2011.  Please email me if you want to receive
detailed survey response data, the weight of individual contributions,
or event photos.  

Read on for information about an inventory spreadsheet available for
your use, which includes data from our collection event.

We had three collection locations (w/three different law enforcement
agencies involved):
Prime (drive thru), Ithaca, NY open 9-3  (average time from entry to
exit = 3.5 minutes)
Satellite 1 (walk-up), Trumansburg, NY open 9-10:30 
Satellite 2 (walk-up), Newfield, NY open 11:30-1

Total participants = 436
Total weight collected = 838 #
Total volume ≈ 900 gallons
Surveys completed = 413  (>76% of participants had not been to either
of our previous collections)
Oldest bottle ≈ 1948, aspirin w/dextrose.  (Oldest from our March 2010
collection: mid 1930's, oil of hemlock.) 

We inventoried all controlled substances received.  We fully
inventoried almost 1 out of 5 contributions.
Doses of controlled substances collected:  16,629.
Average # doses of controlled / prescription bottle received:  35.5
doses
Average % of the unused doses, relative to the dispensed doses, for
controlled prescriptions:  71.1% 
Illegal drugs received:  One bottle with about ten doses tentatively
identified as crystal meth.

The inventory spreadsheet we used is much improved.  All fields appear
on one screen, data entry follows the order of information on
prescription labels, far more drug names (rather than trade names) are
used, etc.  

The inventory spread sheet we created is available for your use at:
http://www.takebacknetwork.com/local_efforts.html 
(Note: I will no longer be posting it to Goggle Documents)
If you select “04/09/11” in the date drop-down menu you will see
only what we inventoried at that event.  You can then select all the
data w/headings and do a data sort by any column.  

Special thanks to all who helped create or improve this spreadsheet: 
Terry Henry, IAWWTF; Norma Barton & Jennifer Alford, Drug Information
Center @ U. of Rochester Medical Center; Ann Pistell, ME DEP; Matthew
Mireles, Community Medical Foundation for Patient Safety; & Philip
Cornell, Cornell U. Gannett Health Services. 
 
If you want to use it at a collection, add the date of your collection,
and select for it.  This will hide the data base while keeping it
available for the auto fill function.  Now that I think of it, you may
want your data to be posted along with ours and others.  Maybe a column
should be added at the end for location?

An full explanation of how to use it along with job descriptions
(greeter, pharmacist, & weigh station) from our collection event should
be posted at the same location about 4/18.   

If you are inspired to improve this data base, your help would be very
appreciated by me and everyone else who will be using it at their
events.  Please use “track changes” and send it back to me with a
brief explanation of what you have done.  I’ll do a quick review then
submit the improved version for posting to the takebacknetwork website.

There is still plenty that can be done to improve the data base.  Many
drugs are not marked RX / OTC; or Controlled / not controlled.  There
are still some trade names where the drug name should appear.   Units
are missing from many items and the drug form is not consistent
throughout (the data entry instructions suggest what forms to use.) 
Some drugs are listed both with and without the salt suffix.  The salt
suffix should only be used if necessary to distinguish it from another
drug.  Some unnecessary duplication is present.  I am leaving in
identical drug entries when they are data from actual collections.  I
have tried to cut duplicate entries when there is one that has no
collection data (date, amount rec'd., data entry initials, etc.)
associated with it.  Your collection event may inventory drugs not yet
on the spreadsheet, which can be added.     

Please let me know if you have any questions or want the detailed data
from our event.

Good luck to everyone participating in the DEA collection effort on the
30th !

Ed Gottlieb
Chair, Coalition for Safe Medication Disposal
Industrial Pretreatment Coordinator
Ithaca Area Wastewater Treatment Facility
525 3rd Street
Ithaca, NY  14850
(607) 273-8381
Fax: (607) 273-8433
egottlieb at cityofithaca.org 




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