A senior Region Health official said Regional Health Rapid City hospital in Rapid City, S.D., is taking new steps to make sure medical waste is being disposed of properly, according to an article on the Rapid City Journal website.

In a Facebook video, Paulette Davidson, chief operating officer and president for Regional Health Rapid City Hospital and Rapid City Market, said that "99.9 percent" of Regional's waste has been disposed of properly, and they're working on reaching the rest.

The video was posted after a week in which the hospital had been under fire because health investigators in 2017 cited the local hospital as non-compliant for improperly sending medical waste to the city landfill. According to the city's public works directors, those violations have continued throughout the past year. 

In her video, Davidson listed safety updates included on last year's improvement plan — such as additional training for staff and more monitoring — as well as new measures, such as off-site sorting and labeling of bags by department, so that if improperly disposed of bags do reach the landfill, their origin can be traced back for added scrutiny.

Surveyors visited the hospital on April 25 and 26 of last year, documenting both red bags filled with medically infectious materials and regular, clear garbage bags with improperly collated medical waste being deposited by the hospital's private hauler at the city landfill. On April 27, 2017, the hospital put forward a plan to state investigators to correct their safety violations.

Read the article.