Patent ID: 6923318

Claim:
A sharps container for facilitating (i) the safe manual, sequential, selective insertion of cylindrically shaped used pen needles directly from a medical delivery pen into said container for safe storage therein, said pen needles having a pre-selected outer diameter, and (ii) the insertion, for safe disposal, of used medical syringes into said container, said container comprising: A. housing means with an internal storage space sized to facilitate the safe storage therein of a plurality of used pen needles and used medical syringes; B. used pen needle receiving and ejecting means connected to said housing means and including: (1) manually rotatable means connected to said housing means for rotation relative to said housing means about a rotational axis, (2) a pen needle ejector assembly having an ejector axis and connected to said rotatable means to be rotated thereby about said rotational axis, said ejector assembly comprising (i) elongated means having receiving means at a first end thereof sized to receive a used pen needle and (ii) an elongated ejector member connected to said elongated means for relative axial movement therewith and having (a) cam follower means at one end thereof initially positioned a pre-selected axial distance along said ejector axis beyond a second end of said elongated means, and (b) a second end initially positioned adjacent said used pen receiving means, and (3) cam means within said housing positioned for an initial contacting of said cam follower means when said rotatable member and said ejector assembly is rotated about said rotational axis; and C. used medical syringe receiving and disposal means comprising means included in said rotatable means (i) for receiving a used medical syringe, and (ii) following a pre-selected rotation of said rotatable means about said rotational axis, for disposing said used medical syringe into said container storage space, whereby, (a) when a used pen needle is positioned in said pen needle receiving means and said manually rotatable means is rotated a pre-selected amount about said rotational axis from said position of said initial contacting so that said cam follower means progressively contacts said cam means to move said ejector means along said ejector axis to force said used pen needle axially out of said pen needle receiving means into said container storage space, and (b) when a used medical syringe is received by said means included in said rotatable means for receiving a used medical syringe and said rotatable means is rotated said pre-selected rotation about said rotational axis, said used medical syringe will be disposed into said container storage space.