Assessment of medical waste management in hospitals of North Khorasan university of medical sciences

Inattention to management of medical wastes has environmental, occupational and public health hazards. Therefore this study aimed to determine the amount of hospital waste generated and status of waste management in hospitals of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences in 2013 and to give a suitable framework for improving waste management practices.

This descriptive-cross sectional study was performed in 6 active hospitals of North Khorasan University of Medical Sciences. Sampling was achieved in summer and autumn 2013 for 2 days in each season and by means of laboratory scale were measured. Data were collected using a checklist of environmental health protection of IRAN and for data analysis, SPSS18 (mean ± SD) and Excel software were used.

The average of total quantity of waste produced in all hospitals was about 1360 kg/day comprised of 56.54% of infectious waste, 41.49% general waste, 1.82% sharps waste and 0.15% chemical waste. Medical waste generation rate for total, general, infectious, sharp and chemical wastes were 2.64±1.31, 1.085±0.74, 1.493±0.65, 0.049±0.028 and 0.010±0.025 kg/bed-day, respectively. According to completed checklist of hospital waste management, 33.3% of studied hospitals were favorite, 50% tolerable and 16.7% unfavorable.

According to this study, infectious wastes are the most generated waste. In order to reduce the amount of them, action should be taken to deal with pollutants at their source of generation and labeling, which could reduce the costs of hospital waste management and giving more accurate statistics. Effective segregation at the source, appropriate collection methods, safe storage and transportation of waste and control of waste disposal are recommended.