Evaluating the Solid Waste Management of Hospitals Affiliated with Shaheed Beheshti Medical University

Due to threatening of public health, Collection, separation and sanitary disposal of hospital solid waste are important. This research was performed to evaluate the management of hospitals’ solid waste affiliated with Shaheed Beheshti Medical University during 1384. In this descriptive study the status of solid waste management of 13 hospital affiliated with Shaheed Beheshti Medical University was evaluated using a questionnaire in association with technical observation and interview. During the summer and winter, weighting the solid waste were performed in “Ayatollah Taleghani” and “Massih Daneshvari” Hospitals for three continual days and data were analyzed using SPSS program. 64.2% of hospitals were using bucket and plastic bags for keeping their solid waste. 30.8% of hospitals were collecting their solid waste manually. In 46.2% of hospitals, utilities using for collecting the solid waste were not being disinfected. 15.4% of hospital did not have any temporary place for keeping solid waste. 27.3% of temporary places had only water tab and sewer pipe without having refrigerating room. 7.7% of hospital had just an open temporary-solid waste storage. In 25% of hospital which were producing radioactive solid wastes, collect their radioactive solid waste with normal solid ones. Radioactive solid waste containers in 50% of hospitals were not made form lead. None of hospitals had necessary and safety facilities. In 38.5% of hospital, loading of solid wastes were performed manually. In 15.4% of hospitals solid wastes were recycled. 42.3% of them were not separating their infected solid wastes from ordinary ones. 15.4% of hospitals did not have any special bags for separating infected solid wastes. In 92.3% of hospitals both infected and ordinary solid waste were carried out together. None of the hospital had hazardous less process for solid wastes. 79.6% of hospitals had workers without special education. Daily average of production volume of solid waste in these hospitals was measured 6426.9 liters. In “Ayatollah Taleghani” and “Massih Daneshvari” Hospitals 407.41 Kg of solid wastes were produced, whilst 49.7% of these solid wastes were infected. Results show that the management condition of solid waste in the studied hospitals is not satisfactory. Methods for disinfecting hospital waste should be studied. Separation of hazardous solid waste from ordinary solid waste should be performed, precisely. Education of hospital workers should be seriously followed.