Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Needle Drop Off

Working a shift when a local neighborhood patron brought by a water carton full of needles. She thought she should "turn it in" to us.

This was a pretty good thought b/c they needed to be disposed of, but the police might have been a better place to start.

Anyways here are the pics I took of the stash.









- ER Doc

14 comments:

arzt4empfaenger said...

Hey, at least they were in a plastic carton and not just in a plastic bag!

SuFu PhD said...

I'm just going to guess this wasn't a old lady w/ brittle diabetes either. why didn't they just buy (steal) a sharps container from wally-world and toss them in the trash?

Anonymous said...

I found piles of them in the laundry room at my old apartment complex once. Needless to say I hired a laundry service for the rest of my lease there.

That and I started pissing on them when drunk... Shitty college apartments FTL

Anonymous said...

I can't tell what's in the bottle from your photo, but it's possible the needles were used for a pet, not a person (diabetic cat, allergy shots for dog, etc.). I tell my clients to return needles and syringes to me for disposal, but not every veterinarian does so.

Calladus said...

When my wife was ill and was prescribed medication and insulin via needle, we used a 2 liter plastic bottle as a sharps container.

We asked her doctor and the local hospital what to do with the needles. No one had a clue. "Throw it away" was the common answer.

We threw them away. It felt wrong to do so - but that's what we did.

ERP said...

We get that sometimes too. Although usually they are people who are using some home injectable med and don't know what to do with the sharps container.

Lynn Dykstra said...

In the early 1980's plastic milk jugs were state of the art for needle disposal. Before that we used to just cap them and maybe break them off at the hub and throw them into the trash.

Lynn Dykstra said...

And yes, that was in the hospitals we used the milk jugs.

tracy said...

Psych Doc
i have a question...Why do so few Psychiatrist's do therapy? Is is because of stupid Insurance Companies? That think they can pay other "therapist's" cheaper?
Thanks!

SerenityNow said...

Tracy,

Sorry I didn't see your question sooner.

You have answered the question. The only psychiatrists that do exclusively psychotherapy are cash - pay only. Insurance will never reimburse enough for therapy to even let you break even.

Some psychiatrists do it a few hours a week.

But the bottom line is, that insurance companies have dictated this. They will reimburse a psychologist more money per hour than a physician. A psychiatrist doing therapy gets reimbursed the same for an hour of therapy as you could be for a 15-min med management.

But honestly, if you want someone who really knows how to do therapy, go to a psychologist anyway. They are trained in numerous different methods and have much more experience.

-Psych Doc

Guzzo said...

I'm surprised that she didn't try her local pharmacy first.

Anonymous said...

in canada....people are encouraged to bring back their dirty needles to be disposed of to the pharmacy. Also...if it is illicit drug use..there are needle exchanges. I don't think i would be so judgmental.

Anonymous said...

I'm way behind on reading, but those look like the veterinary syringes we use for our diabetic cat. Our vet clinic says to take them to the hospital for disposal because the med waste service they use charges outrageously for needles (and we'd have to be paying personally) - but the hospital won't take them, says to just seal them into a plastic milk jug and put them in the trash, as state law allows it.

Sharps Disposal Container said...

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