Medical appliance disposal container

Abstract

A medical appliance disposal container is disclosed having at least one opening for insertion of medical appliances, the opening being covered by at least one slotted plastic membrane for insertion of the desired medical appliance into the disposal container. In at least one of the openings at the end of the slot is a needle destruction means whereby needles may be destroyed while attached to a syringe and the destroyed needle-syringe assembly inserted through the slot into the disposal container. In another embodiment, laminated plastic screens can be color-coded to aid in sorting and counting of medical appliances, such as scalpel blades, following surgery. The disposal container of this invention provides for the direct intact disposal of a wide variety of medical appliances while providing an inexpensive container for placement at a large number of locations throughout a health care facility. The medical appliance disposal container disclosed reduces the risk of contents spillage should the container be upset during use.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.