Investigation of hospital wastes management variables and their adaptation with ISO 14001 standard

The optimal management of hospital waste is essential to protect the public health and environment. The aim of the present study is to investigate the variables of hospital waste management in terms of their compliance with the ISO 14001 standard. In addition to identivying the weaknesses of waste management, some strategies are presented overcome them.
This study was carried out in 2013. The required data for hospital waste sector were obtained using a questionnaire and the Tables designed by World Health Organization (WHO). Condition of the environmental management of the wastes was described using the questionnaire, the environmental management system standard (ISO 14001), the national standard of Iran, and Likert range. All the data were analyzed by SPSS 16.
Findings: Results showed that the conditions in the studied hospitals were lower than the hypothetical average (3) in terms of some variables such as identification of environmental aspects, planning for achieving the macro and micro goals; receiving the necessary training, drafting functions and responsibilities of waste management, and preparation for emergency response. In order to identify the environmental aspects of hospital waste, results showed that from 2307.82 Kg of the waste produced in hospitals daily, 62.23% were general waste, 36.17% were infectious waste and 0.58% were sharp substances. There was a significant correlation between the numbers of provided services in hospitals and the rate of daily generated waste (r= 0.992¡ P=0.008). Moreover, there was a significant regression relation between the overall area of hospitals and the rate of daily generated waste (P=0.02).